More Canadians are consuming more music from more artists than ever before. The second week of December marked the first time in history that Canadians collectively listened to more than 3 billion audio streams in a single week. This event was announced by Music Canada using data from Luminate, the world's leading provider of data and insights to the music and entertainment industry.
This figure represents on-demand audio streams through licensed services such as Spotify, Apple Music, Amazon Music and YouTube Music.
“Three billion audio streams in one week is a major achievement for the Canadian music market and demonstrates the importance of streaming audio in the everyday lives of Canadians,” says Patrick Rogers, CEO of Music Canada. “Licensed streaming services have transformed the Canadian music ecosystem, helping the industry recover from the damage caused by an era of widespread piracy. Today, Canadians from coast to coast can subscribe to services that provide access to virtually the entire history of recorded music, from which they can personalize their listening experience, while ensuring that the creators of that music are compensated for their work.”
Canadians' continued use of music streaming is reflected in the achievement of new milestones as the number of weekly audio streams increases rapidly. According to Luminate, there were approximately 1 million on-demand streams per week in Canada in June 2014; in March 2018 the total grew to 1 billion, and in November 2021 we reached 2 billion. Now, in December 2025, the Canadian market has surpassed 3 billion audio streams in one week.
A little digging into the streaming data reveals that Canadians are not only streaming more than ever before, they're also listening more artists than ever before.
Take, for example, the 10 most popular artists this week. These artists accounted for 136 million streams, or just 4.53% of all streams. In fact, this week alone, 414 artists received one million or more streams from Canadian listeners.
“Canadians choose to listen to an incredible number of artists from Canada and around the world—not just the biggest names we all know and love. But with more music at our fingertips, it has never been more difficult for artists to reach their fans around the world. To help them succeed, our artists need to be able to work with streaming platform teams here in Canada who can be their champions,” says Rogers.
