Earlier this month, SiriusXM Canada quietly removed CBC Radio 3 from its lineup.
For fans of the beloved digital station, which has curated an eclectic mix of indie and alternative music, the decision is inconvenient – listeners must now visit the CBC Music website to access the Radio 3 playlist.
But for many musicians, the change is potentially disastrous, as it eliminates royalties generated by satellite radio – widely seen as one of the last viable sources of income for independent Canadian artists. Insiders say the move will make it even harder for local musicians and record labels to survive in an already precarious industry.
“It’s a blow to independent artists,” Kamilah Apong, lead singer of disco-house band Tush, told The Star. “Many of us have already rearranged our lives to find ways to make money. This feels like the final nail in the coffin.
Independent record labels, like Toronto-based Telephone Explosion Records, also fear the worst.
“The loss of this revenue will result in immediate negative changes (including potential job cuts) to the music industry in this country,” Telephone Explosion co-owner Jon Schouten told The Star.
“It could significantly reduce the amount of independent Canadian music created each year and weaken a live music industry that is still reeling from COVID-related losses. We are facing a potentially catastrophic situation that will have ripple effects for decades.
The decision to withdraw CBC Radio 3, along with CBC Country and two French-language stations from ICI Radio-Canada, was made by SiriusXM.
“CBC/Radio-Canada has been contracted to provide feeds to SiriusXM for a number of years. Our contract has been completed and SiriusXM has decided to program its own channels in the future,” CBC Music explained in a tweet.
When asked to comment, SiriusXM Canada directed the Star to an online statement on its website regarding the programming changes: “We remain committed to Canadian music and artists, and our Canadian programming will continue to reflect that. .”
Streaming vs Satellite Radio
In the age of music streaming, it’s notoriously difficult for the majority of musicians to make money from their music.
Record sales, that is, the physical purchase of vinyl or CDs, have exploded over the past decade. Meanwhile, platforms like Spotify and Apple Music pay fractions of a penny per stream — according to music publication Producer Hive, it takes 125 streams to earn a dollar on Apple Music, 314 streams to earn a dollar on Spotify, and 500 streams to earn a dollar on YouTube Music.
Most independent artists therefore rely on revenue from “neighboring rights” – or royalties – generated by radio, television and advertisements. In Canada, these royalties are generally collected and distributed on a quarterly basis by performing rights organizations such as SOCAN and ACTRA RACS.
The most lucrative royalty distributor in Canada, however, is SoundExchange, a not-for-profit organization that covers “non-interactive streaming services,” including SiriusXM.
Copyright law requires SiriusXM to pay 15.5% of its gross revenue to Sound Exchange, which is about $1 billion a year. For artists, this equates to approximately $50 per spin, split between the artist and the songmaster’s owner (usually the record company).
In other words, while a few hundred streams on Spotify can earn an artist a single dollar, having a song in regular rotation on SiriusXM can generate thousands of dollars in quarterly revenue.
Neighboring rights are also essential for the day-to-day operation of record companies.
Jean-Philippe Bourgeois is an artist manager and radio tracker at Mothland, a Montreal company that acts as a booking agency and record label. He told The Star that nearly every artist Mothland represents has landed on CBC Radio 3’s rotation, generating revenue that is in turn used for marketing, vinyl production and third-party publicists.
“It’s expensive to market a record,” he told the Star. “For independent labels, it was one of the only ways – apart from grants – to recoup their investment or maybe make some money.”
Why CBC Radio 3 matters
If you tune into CBC Radio 3, you’re almost guaranteed to hear something new.
Launched in 2000 and syndicated for satellite radio in 2005, the station broadcasts a loose mix of various genres, from indie rock and jazz to alternative hip hop and electronica.
According to Max Turnbull, the bandleader of the Toronto-based pysch-jazz collective Badge Époque Ensemble, CBC Radio 3 is one of the few places that remains dedicated to the platform of indie or underground artists that listeners won’t hear. not on commercial radio stations like Indie88 or 102.2 Edge.
“CBC Radio 3 is not your traditional corporate radio,” he explained. “It’s public programming, not necessarily mandated by the bottom line.”
As a musician and producer, Turnbull has been creating and performing music locally since 2008, not registering his catalog with SoundExchange until 2018.
“I was amazed. The first record (Badge Époque Ensemble) — which I considered to be a very independent and local type of project – started to generate income, thanks in large part to CBC Radio 3, ”he told the Star. “And at that time, it was like the difference between conceiving myself as a professional musician or not. Before that, I had never received, quarter after quarter, a few thousand dollars.
It’s its statement online, SiriusXM noted that digital station The Verge “continues to deliver the best in new and emerging Canadian independent and alternative music, including many artists heard on CBC Radio 3.”
But Turnbull and other insiders say the remaining independent/alternative stations on SiriusXM, including The Verge, are driven by the company’s editorial interests and are more likely to resemble mainstream commercial radio.
“I am deeply skeptical that replacing a channel that was occupied by a public radio station – with its mandates of diversity, inclusion and promotion of independent artists – with a SiriusXM brand will be nurturing for genuine local communities,” he said.
Indeed, replacing CBC Radio 3 on SiriuxsFM channel 162 is Mixtape: North, a station dedicated to Canadian hip hop and R&B. An announcement from SiriusXM says the station will play artists “like Drake, the Weeknd, Tory Lanez, Jesse Reyez, Kardinal Offishall, k-os and Choclair” – all established and commercially successful artists who already reside on radio. company.
Difficult times in the music industry
Unfortunately, SiriusXM’s schedule changes come at a time when independent artists are already struggling to survive. A perfect storm COVID-19 pandemic, shortage of local theaters and record–high inflation means touring – once a vital source of income – poses a financial risk for many artists.
Even established indie artists are feeling the crunch. Earlier this month, Animal Collective canceled their European tour as they “couldn’t budget for this tour which wasn’t wasting money even though everything was going as smoothly as possible”. In September, Santigold called off his tour, noting that his past years in a “relentless industry” had taken a toll on his mental and physical health.
“We lost the tours. We lost direct album sales. And now people are losing our radio royalty payments,” Apong told The Star. “So it’s just like another blow, and so I think a lot of artists are pretty clueless.”
For Turnbull, the demise of CBC Radio 3 from SiriusXM is part of a larger economic trend that has seen locally supported markets or communities being absorbed by huge tech companies like Amazon or Spotify.
“It’s really not an isolated problem,” he explained. “It’s a symptom of deep stratification that’s happening economically and culturally, where it’s literally boom or bust. Either you’re like a music millionaire or it’s a hobby for you. And there is increasingly a thin line between these two realities.
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