Chris Berube

But there's still very little representation of Indigenous musicians on the radio.

Here's Rolly Pemberton again.

So there isn't anything to be like, hey, we need this percentage of CanCon to be BIPOC artists.

Like, they don't have that.

In recent years, there has been a push to amend Canadian content laws to enforce a minimum percentage of radio airplay by BIPOC Canadians.

But even if those changes were made, it might not have a big effect because CanCon rules are becoming a lot less relevant with the rise of music streaming.

It turns out the Maple system, it's not at all future proof.

CanCon laws focus solely on terrestrial radio, while Spotify and other music streaming services go unregulated.

Spotify has argued they actually can't be regulated the same way as radio stations because they don't choose what music people are listening to.

The federal government of Canada has passed a bill called the Online Streaming Act, which is their attempt to regulate streaming companies.

But instead of content quotas, the bill would introduce a 15% streaming tax on these big companies.

Spotify and others challenged this law in court.

So that streaming tax might not even happen.

Without...

A willingness on the part of the companies who are not Canadian, unfortunately, without a willingness to engage with, let's just say, the spirit of the CanCon regulations, it's very hard to think of how streaming could make use of the Maple system.

Maybe this era is a post-CanCon one, where musicians have to rely on other tools moving forward, like support from public funding, and going viral, and the luck of the algorithm.

But I really hope we don't use this new era as an excuse to stop promoting the great artists I share a home country with.

Canadian music has been everywhere for the past few decades.

It's been the soundtrack to my life.

It might be a big part of your life too, even if you don't know it.