There are more online services than ever before offering music in Canada today! Apple Music launched in June 2015 and Spotify just marked the first anniversary of their entry into Canada back in the fall of 2014. Additionally there has been a steady stream of new services entering the Canadian digital music market, and CMRRA would like to give you an update on some of the innovative new services that have launched in Canada recently. Each of these services has worked with CMRRA (through CSI, our joint venture with SODRAC) to ensure that they are licensed for operation here, and we are pleased that Canadian music lovers are getting a chance to experience each of them!
Napster, launched on November 1st and began offering a subscription services for both desktop and mobile devices. Coming from the team at Rhapsody, Napster features an app with a unique kids mode that offers a safe and easy music streaming environment. Napster is available for $9.99 a month with unlimited on-demand streams available for offline listening, as well as webcast channels that make discovering new music easy and intuitive!
Another new player in the Canadian market is Team Rock, an online radio service that hails from the UK. Featuring a number of different streaming music-focused radio feeds (or “webcasts” as they are known under CSI’s online music service tariff), Team Rock is available online from their website or via an app called Team Rock Radio. Using the app, Team Rock listeners can also access archived shows and store radio streams for offline playback.
CMRRA was also excited to see PonoMusic enter Canada on Monday, November 23rd! PonoMusic features a unique digital music store that was developed by Canada’s own artist Neil Young, with a focus on high-quality audio file downloads. PonoMusic offers music digitally in the uncompressed FLAC format at the highest resolution available, and they make the “Pono Promise” to consumers that if a purchased album is later released at a higher quality then all previous purchasers will always have access to that higher quality version at no additional cost. PonoMusic’s unique approach has made it an industry standout that CMRRA is excited to see come to the Canadian market, and we were happy to work with them to get everything in line for their launch here. Randy Leasure, PonoMusic’s Vice President of Business Development and Content Marketing, praised the ease of licensing through CMRRA and CSI, saying that “with a collective it’s a one-stop-shop, we didn’t have to shop around with all sorts of different rights holders, and for a small team like ours that ability to streamline the whole process was integral to making it happen.”
CMRRA has enjoyed working with each of these services to ensure that they could be available to Canadian consumers. CMRRA is open for business to all music users looking to offer music in the ever-expanding Canadian market.
