Did you know that Canadian artists account for roughly 23 percent of the Canadian market? Did you know that the annual royalty loss attributable to music downloading in Canada is about $540,000 (12 per cent of $4.5 million)? With this being said it’s easy to say very few bands become substantially successful in Canada. With the Canadian recording industry sustaining significant financial losses in recent years due to decreased music sales how do you feel about getting your music out there? The music industry in Canada has always been tough to break, would you say it’s even tougher now? You can find an in depth story on the decline of music sales in Canada through CRIA. The losses have materially harmed Canadian artists.

Information for this post was derived from the CRIA website as well as The Star, Michael Geist, Canada’s Research Chair in Internet and E-commerce Law at the University of Ottawa

Do you use an iPod? Aren't they everywhere? Do you use the iTunes music store? If you use iTunes's encoder to rip your music, or you purchase music from the iTunes music store, then your files are in AAC format, which is a closed system that only works with iTunes. Windows has it's own WMA format, which won't work with iPods or Macs. How about an open standard? What are your thoughts?

Thanks to Jack for this post. USA Today writer Andrew Kantor comments on reports that digital music sales are in decline. He denies that digital sales are dropping, citing a Nielson SoundScan report that claims digital sales have grown 67% from 2005, but points out that digital music sales are still a drop in the bucket compared to CD sales and to online piracy.

He goes on to state that the reason that piracy is so common is not simply that people don't want to pay for music, but rather that they want to have control over the music they pay for. Kantor compares the use of DRMs and proprietary formats to the early days of the recording industry when companies used record formats that were only compatible with specific players. The result of which, he claims, was poor sales.

There are some services, he writes, that offer digital music sales without copy control measures, but the major labels have not signed on to these services.

What do you think? Are DRMs and other copy-control methods necessary for the industry to protect itself? Or would opening up to DRM-free formats increase the viability of online music sales as a major form of revenue?