Canadian artists are getting increasingly vocal about the Online Streaming Act. This after Bryan Adams speaks out.
It’s no secret that the Online Streaming Act is destined to make life that much more unaffordable for Canadians. If it wasn’t clear throughout the legislative process when it was still Bill C-11, it was made crystal clear after the law passed and the CRTC subsequently announcing that they would be slapping a 5% tax on streaming services back in August.
While the Online Streaming act is still going through the CRTC consultation processes, things have already been shifting around in Canada in response to this new law. For instance, Disney has already pulled their investments out of Canada in response to the legislation. This was later followed up by Netflix following suit and pulling their sponsorships out of Canadian development programs. If that wasn’t bad enough, smaller platforms are also openly contemplating leaving Canada altogether. The probability of that happening is quite high for a variety of reasons. Either way, the Online Streaming Act sent a strong signal that Canada is closed for business and international companies have heard those signals and have already begun pulling up stakes in Canada.
There is no question the immense damage this is causing within the Canadian creativity community. Online creators are seeing the prospect of their Canadian audiences evaporating as they get downranked on various platforms. Other creators are slowly realizing that the Canadian government has become increasingly being openly hostile to their businesses and pushing them to leave the country altogether. All this to prop up legacy corporations in Canada that have been bleeding audiences for decades now due to low quality garbage and rebroadcasts of American programming. Those legacy corporations, through the power of lobbying, are trying to set up a system that rewards this lack of innovation and technological adaptation while punishing home grown talent and innovation in the process.
On the music side of things, DiMA has long warned about how the Online Streaming Act would worsen the affordability crisis. This confirmed the speculation that while some platforms will be heading for the exits (and taking all that investment money with them), the ones that stay will be forced to jack up rates for consumers to pay for the new streaming tax. Spotify would later follow through with those warnings and greatly raised their rates for consumers in response to the Online Streaming Act.
Canadian creators and record labels (both domestic and foreign) have long warned the Canadian government against following through this. This along with Canadian creators desperate for the Canadian government to see the error of their ways. Unfortunately, those calls for sanity not only went completely ignored, but were followed up with accusations that people like them were little more than “shills” for “Big Tech”. In fact, it got so bad, politicians took things a step further and called for “investigations” into anyone criticizing their efforts to destroy the careers of Canadian creators.
Still, whether it is threats, insults, or pressure tactics, Canadian creators are going to continue to fight for their own careers. When you work your whole life to build a career, you’re not going to stop just because some jerk politician arbitrarily decides that your career is over because your life doesn’t matter in their opinions. You’re going to fight to the bitter end. While the odds are extremely long that the CRTC is even going to bother listening to Canadians (let alone the Canadian government in their war on Canadian creators), Canadian artists are starting to say “damn the odds” and push against the Online Streaming Act anyway.
Famed Canadian artist, Bryan Adams, has done just that. In a post on Instagram, Adams posted a video telling Canadians to urge the Canadian government to scrap the streaming tax. Here’s a transcript of the video:
The Canadian Government’s new music streaming tax is gonna cost you MORE to listen to the music you love on line.
A while back, the minister Heritage said she wanted to engage with artists about this new tax. Well, that never happened. No calls, no meetings—nothing. And now they’ve slipped this new tax through – wanna know where your money’s gonna go?
I’ll tell you – It’s going to prop up outdated broadcasting models such as CanCon, which were originally built to help canadian creators.And CanCon needs to change, not be propped up. For example, the way it’s set up now, if an artist decides they want to work with a non-canadian – then the work is no longer recognised as Canadian, and therefore radio stations are less likely to play it.
How does this help Canadian artists – particularly emerging ones? It doesn’t, these rules just make it harder for new artists to breakthrough and share music on a global scale.
Canadians deserve better.
Scrap the tax / and change the rules.
Because music…is global
The Canadian government has a very long history of ignoring Canadians and creators in this debate, so it’s difficult to see why they would start now. Still, Adams is well within his right to fight against it. In fact, I would say music artists haven’t spoken out enough against this legislation in the first place. So, it’s welcome to see this happening even if it’s a bit on the late side of things. While the odds are long, it doesn’t hurt to fight against the Online Streaming Act – even in these late stages. Hopefully, more artists take a stands for the future of Canadian music.
