1.1 The challenges faced by the Canadian music industry

Like other cultural content industries, the Canadian music industry has been profoundly affected by the digital revolution. While music is more accessible than ever before, sales of compact discs (CDs) have dropped sharply. The revenues generated from digital downloads or online streaming services have not made up for the decline in revenues from CD sales.

The many players in the music industry – composers, performers, producers, distributors, publishers, record companies, live music venues and festival and concert promoters – face diverse challenges in adapting to the new digital environment.

To better understand these challenges and to provide the government with recommendations for strengthening its support for the Canadian music industry, the House of Commons Standing Committee on Canadian Heritage (“the Committee”) decided to undertake this review.

1.2 The Committee’s mandate

On 5 December 2013, the Committee adopted the following motion:

That pursuant to S.O. 108(2), the Committee undertake a review of the Canadian music industry, over the course of no more than 7 meetings, in order to: a) inform Committee members of the details and impacts of the government support on Canadian music, as well as on the creators and entrepreneurs who create and distribute music in Canada; b) determine how funding is allocated; c) to establish whether the government support is meeting the objectives laid out for it, and to make recommendations to the government on how it might strengthen support for Canadian music, and report its findings to the House.^[1]

On 27 March 2014, the Committee agreed to hold seven additional meetings on the review.^[2] In total, the Committee held 14 meetings on the study during which it heard from 82 witnesses and received 15 briefs.

1.3 The Committee’s report

The Committee decided that its report would focus on the following five themes:

• Digital distribution and streaming
• Music education
• Music tourism
• Current funding – future investment
• FACTOR/Musicaction

Chapter 2 of this report gives an overview of the current situation of the Canadian music industry and summarizes the testimony given by witnesses on the five themes. Chapter 3 looks at the outcomes proposed by witnesses on each theme. Chapter 4 presents the Committee’s recommendations.