Major Streaming Platforms and Labels Push Back Against Applying Radio Regulations to On-Demand Listening in Canada

An aerial shot of Vancouver. Photo Credit: Aditya Chinchure

Major streaming platforms and record labels are once again pushing back against Canada’s controversial Online Streaming Act as well as wider broadcasting reforms, purportedly including an effort to apply radio regulations to on-demand services.Music Canada (which counts as members the major labels’ Canadian divisions) and DIMA (which reps streaming platforms like Spotify and Apple Music) expressed these concerns in a letter to the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC).

That’s the Canadian government agency tasked with enforcing the mentioned Online Streaming Act, an amendment to and expansion of the existing Broadcasting Act. In brief, the majors and leading streaming services have for some time been challenging the law, which is complete with a 5% tax for on-demand platforms.

(We previously took a closer look at the tax’s specifics and the mentioned parties’ legal challenges, besides providing a detailed breakdown of what exactly the voluminous Online Streaming Act means for services.)

Said challenges have coincided with an apparently involved implementation process, which is mapped out on the CRTC website. Most recently, this process earlier in September brought multiple “engagement sessions,” several of which drew participation from Music Canada and DIMA members.

Now, having been encouraged to provide written feedback on the sessions, the organizations are taking the opportunity to drive home their belief that “radio and audio streaming are not the same.”“Out of context,” they wrote, “it might seem odd for the largest streaming services and major music labels in Canada to write to a regulator asserting a truism, but we believe that the recent workshops have made this necessary.

“From the discussion guide to the moderated questions, there was a clear attempt to place the continuation of radio regulations on audio streaming services as an obvious next step. We do not agree.”

As the implementation inches forward, the organizations are calling on the CRTC to “think of the streaming services and their interactions with Canadians for what they are today and not as a proxy to the broadcasting system of the 1900s.”

Streaming, the entities indicated in more words, is tailored to personal listening preferences, encompasses a wide variety of content and features, supports more discoverability than radio, and drives global consumption as opposed to only local listening.

Moving forward, it’ll be worth monitoring the impact of these and other comments from DIMA and Music Canada. However, as alluded to, the wider broadcast-framework reform won’t happen overnight. The CRTC’s website describes several unfinished steps, with the agency seemingly “targeting launch late 2025” for the new full-scale regulatory structure.