Canadian Digital Music Sales Growing Faster Than U.S. in 2010
2 Comments
Recent Posts
The Law Bytes Podcast, Episode 241: Scott Benzie on How Government Policy Has Eroded Big Tech Support for Canadian Culture 
What Is the Canadian Government Doing With Its Incoherent Approach to TikTok? 
The Law Bytes Podcast, Episode 240: Dean Beeby on Why Canada’s Language Laws May Stop Government From Posting Access to Information Records Online 
Risky Business: The Legal and Privacy Concerns of Mandatory Age Verification Technologies 
Another Canadian Digital Policy Own Goal: Corporate TikTok Ban Leads to Millions in Lost Cultural Group Support
Whirl, twirl, twist and curl
Well Mr. Henderson will come up with anything to sell his spin, here goes another twirl …
“As for this country’s larger gains in digital music consumption than the U.S.’s, the Canadian Recording Industry Association says the great white north is simply behind the curve, with services like iTunes showing up later in this country.”
The difference between the launch of Itunes in the USA and Canada was ONE YEAR, over half a decade ago. Check out the math below and tell me if you think, like Mr. Henderson, that explains four consecutive years of greater growth? I’m pretty sure there is something else at play here and I’m also fairly certain that Mr. Henderson would like to find some inexplicable way to blame this growth on ‘piracy’ if he could 😉
Itunes USA launch = 2003
Itunes Canada launch = 2004
Year that Canada started to have greater growth in digital musics sales than the USA = 2006
Years that Canada [2006-2010] has continued to have greater growth in digital musics sales than the USA = 4
It’s seems math and logic are not Mr. Henderson’s best strengths, but obscuration is at least a well used one.
The increase in overall sales is interesting, but it is also affected by a number of factors other than the ones that Mr Henderson mentions. Among other things is the penetration rates of high speed internet; in particular subscriptions which have higher bandwidth caps. While we are talking about music here, meaning that the average song is, what, something on the order of 5 MBytes, the bandwidth caps that have been in place, and the download speeds available have also been a hindrance to the expansion of the market. Mr Henderson should also take note that this affects the rates of piracy by download; the pipe is only so big.