In May 2021, the Department of Canadian Heritage launched the Canadian Artists and Content Creators Economic Survey (CACCES). The objective was to inform the development of public policies and programs of the federal government, ensuring that the Department continues to adapt to the reality of the creative sector, a sector which, according to the results of the survey, has proven to be fragile, even before the pandemic.

Data specific to the various artistic domains were identified as part of the survey. Here are the main data relating to artists in the musical field:

Out of 4,747 responses, 18.2% came from artists in the music field.

Of these, 56% depend on traditional sources of income such as shows. The least common sources of income for these artists are royalties and paid online downloads.

This trend partly explains why music artists are among those hardest hit by the pandemic and public health restrictions. In fact, 83% of music artists have reported a loss of income attributable to the practice of their art since the start of the pandemic. This percentage echoes the “time that musical artists devote to the exercise of their art since the pandemic”, since 52% devote less time to it.

We must also take into consideration the volatility of revenues specific to this sector, even before the pandemic. Indeed, 46% of musical artists say that their income attributable to the practice of an art fluctuates by at least 50% or 100% from one year to the next.

Moreover, despite the challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic, a large majority of artists in the music field (92%) plan to continue their creative work in one form or another. Indeed, only 3.5% of musical artists planned to quit their creative work. It’s also worth noting that based on the survey results, music artists were more likely to plan to adapt their creative work in a “post-pandemic” setting (16.2% of musicians planned to adapt, compared to 11.3% of respondents in all areas).