Another quote by CRIA (Canadian Recording Industry Association) president Graham Henderson has been refuted with a recently released report.
Note: This is an article I wrote that was published elsewhere first. It has been republished here for archival purposes
According to a Business Wire report, digital music sales were up 122% in Canada. This is despite the claim that that Canadians are “abandoning the marketplace altogether”.
The report says that in 2005, some 6.7 million digital tracks were sold. This is compared to the 14.9 million sold in 2006. The growth is at a much higher rate then that of the United States and Europe in an IFPI report. In the US, digital music sales went up by 65% from 2005 to 2006. In 2005 Americans purchased 353 million tracks and in 2006, they purchased 582 million tracks. Meanwhile in Europe, digital music sales were up by 80% from 62 million in 2005 to 111 million sales in 2006.
“The Canadian market is nearly two years behind the U.S. as iTunes debuted in December 2004 in Canada. The first year sales were also relatively modest, followed by dramatic jump last year.” Michael Geist noted, “Considering the more limited selection and the absence of television downloads, the only credible conclusion is that the Canadian market is performing very well.”
According to statistics Canada, Canada has a population of about 32.8 million. That means that for every 2.2 people (mathematically speaking), a digital music track was sold. According to a CNN article, the US population recently went over 300 million. That means nearly 2 tracks (1.94) are sold per person in the US. According to Wikipedia, Europe has a population of about 710 million. That means that for just over 6 (6.39) people, 1 digital music sale was made.
At the current rate, Canada will overtake the US in 5 years if trends continue on a per person basis.
Drew Wilson on Twitter: @icecube85 and Google+.
