Growth of music streaming platforms slowing in Quebec

Streaming platforms remain the preferred way for Quebecers to listen to music, even though new statistics show that the growth in streams slowed in 2025. Music album sales, meanwhile, continue to decline.

In Quebec, there were 31.9 billion streams on platforms such as Spotify and Apple Music, according to an analysis published by the Institut de la statistique du Québec (ISQ). This represents a three per cent increase in 2025, compared to 12 per cent in 2024 and 16 per cent in 2023.

Streaming growth has also slowed nationally. For the rest of Canada, a six per cent increase is reported, compared to 10 per cent in 2024 and 15 per cent in 2023.

The advent of music streaming platforms has disrupted the industry and caused a “phenomenal decline” in CD sales. The number of CDs sold dropped from 13 million in 2004 to 500,000 in 2025.

However, ISQ notes that vinyl record sales have been steadily increasing since 2008. The number of units sold in 2025 was 400,000.

A bleak picture for Quebec music

The decline in physical music sales is having a much greater impact on local artists than on international artists.

“The share of album sales accounted for by Quebec artists has been declining for the fourth consecutive year. In one year, it fell from 24 per cent to 18 per cent,” the report states.

“This decline is due to a sharper drop in album sales among Quebec artists than among artists from other regions, for both CDs and digital files. Furthermore, vinyl—which is growing—does little to benefit Quebec artists (8 per cent of sales),” the report explains.

The share of French-language music in sales continues to decline, “especially on physical formats (CDs and vinyl), where it fell from 39 per cent in 2018 to 11 per cent in 2025,” the report notes.

Only 7.1 per cent of all streams on platforms were tracks by Quebec artists, “a figure that remained stable compared to 2024 (seven per cent), but down from 2023 (7.5 per cent) and 2022 (eight per cent),” the report states.

Only one Quebec act made it onto the list of the 20 most-streamed artists in Quebec: the Cowboys Fringants, who ranked 12th on the list.

Unsurprisingly, Charlotte Cardin is the second most popular Quebec artist. However, she ranks only 38th in the overall chart.

Céline Dion ranks fifth on the Quebec chart, behind Souldia (third) and Alexandra Stréliski (fourth).