US EditionCRTC launches hearing on Canadian content obligations for music streamers
The Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission is reviewing music streaming regulations amid rising streaming revenues and declining radio advertising, with debates on royalty payments ongoing.
- The CRTC launched a hearing on Sept. 18, 2025, in Gatineau, Quebec, to examine Canadian content obligations for music streaming services like Spotify.
- This hearing follows the 2024 CRTC mandate that major international streaming services contribute 5% of their Canadian revenues to funds supporting domestic content, a requirement currently paused due to an ongoing legal challenge.
- Streaming companies argue their royalty payments, which represent about 70 per cent of revenues, and promotion efforts sufficiently support Canadian and Indigenous artists, while radio broadcasters cite a severe industry decline.
- The Digital Media Association highlighted that streaming pays 8.5 times more revenue to rightsholders than commercial radio and urged the CRTC not to impose quotas, calling intervention potentially inequitable as Amazon warned it could reduce investments.
- The hearing aims to balance evolving regulations under the Online Streaming Act amid radio's decline caused by foreign platforms disrupting audiences and adverts, while the CRTC prefers streamers enhance discoverability via financial or promotional means.
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16 Articles
Hearings should include representatives of online platforms, such as Spotify and Apple Music, as well as broadcasters.
CRTC Launches Hearing on Canadian Content Obligations for Music Streamers
The federal broadcast regulator begins a hearing today to look at which Canadian content obligations should apply to music streamers like Spotify. Streaming services argue their current efforts to promote Canadian culture—and the royalties they pay—are good enough. Radio broadcasters, meanwhile, say their sector is in serious decline and they want the CRTC to take a lighter regulatory touch for traditional players. Both sides are set to make the…
Winnipeg Free Press
CRTC launches hearing on Canadian content obligations for music streamers
Breaking News, Sports, Manitoba, Canada
Stingray kicks off CRTC hearings calling for overhaul of CanCon rules - Broadcast Dialogue
Stingray Radio kicked off the CRTC’s The Path Forward hearings on Thursday morning, calling for a significant reshaping of Canadian Content (CanCon) regulations. The latest in a series of hearings aimed at modernizing the Broadcast Act, this round is examining the creation, distribution and discoverability of Canadian and Indigenous audio content across radio and online streaming platforms, also considering how traditional broadcasters and audio…
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