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CRTC launches hearing on Canadian content obligations for music streamers

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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