Copyfightin' Canadian legal scholar Michael Geist sez, "The Canadian Recording Industry Association used the Kazaa decision to issue an incredible press release on how Canadian law is killing digital music sales. This posting seeks to deconstruct the claims by demonstrating that the source of slow growth is the industry, not Canadian law."
First, slower sales reflect a broader Canadian trend in e-commerce. There is no correlation between broadband penetration and online music sales nor any other form of e-commerce as Canadians have been slower to gravitate to all e-commerce offerings, from books to travel to music. You don't see Amazon or Expedia claiming that it is the Canadian legal framework that has slowed adoption of their online offerings because the two simply aren't directly linked.
Second, there are far fewer online music services in Canada than in the U.S. According to IFPI, the global recording industry association, Canada currently has six services (Archambault, iTunes, Napster, Future Shop, Sympatico, and Puretracks). By comparison, IFPI lists 34 U.S. services. With nearly one-sixth the number of online music services, the lower Canadian numbers are precisely what you would expect.
Third, the Canadian services offer far less music than their U.S. counterparts. Numerous U.S. services offer more than 1 million tracks. In Canada, only iTunes does. Moreover, iTunes has some major Canadian misses. Where is the French content (funny that Canadian Heritage Minister Liza Frulla is concerned with satellite radio french content but says nothing about the lack of French offerings on iTunes)? Where are groups like The Arcade Fire, one of Canada's hottest bands that made the cover of the Canadian edition of Time Magazine?
(Thanks, Michael!)
