The Music of Emerging Canadian Artist on Commercial French-language Radio

Radio Policy,
Broadcasting Directorate

4/14/2011


Background

In Call for comments on the definition of emerging artists on commercial radio, Broadcasting Public Notice CRTC 2008-16, 27 February 2008, the Commission announced that it would adopt definitions of emerging artists appropriate to French- and English-language talent, and invited suggestions for such definitions. The results of this process are published in Definition of emerging Canadian artists on commercial radio, Broadcasting Regulatory Policy CRTC 2011-316, also issued today.

To assist the Commission in making its decision regarding the definition of Canadian French-language emerging artists, Commission staff undertook a study of the amount of such artists’ music played on French-language commercial radio in relation to two emerging artists definitions.

Methodology

Definition A – Suggested by the Association québeçoise de l’industrie du disque, du spectacle et de la vidéo and the Canadian Association of Broadcasters:

A Canadian French-language artist shall be considered an emerging artist until one of the following thresholds has been reached:

For the purposes of this definition, the concept of artist includes duos, trios or groups of artists operating under a defined identity. If a member of a duo, trio or group begins a solo career or creates with other partners a new duo, trio or group with a new defined identity, the solo artist or duo, trio or group shall be considered an “emerging artist” according to the above criteria.

Definition B – Suggested by Commission staff:

Schedule C: Le Palmarès Top 100 Radio BDS Francophone, Top 50 Radio Francophone.

Schedule D: Le Palmarès Tops 25 Radio BDS Francophone Pop Rock, Tops 25 Radio BDS Francophone Pop Adulte, Tops 25 Radio Francophone Pop Rock or the Tops 25 Radio Francophone Pop Adulte

The stations included in the study were operating in formats that play at least some current music. Stations that were ruled out include, among others, those describing themselves as “Souvenirs garantis” or “Succès retro.” The 2008 BBM Radio Survey Guides were used to verify the station formats.

  ADULT CONTEMPORARY MAINSTREAM
TOP 40 / CHR
ALTERNATIVE/
MODERN ROCK
Montréal CFGL-FM
CITÉ-FM
CKMF-FM
CKOI-FM

Québec CITF-FM
CJEC-FM
CHIK-FM CHOI-FM
Ottawa-Gatineau CIMF-FM CKTF-FM
Drummondville
CJDM-FM
Trois Rivières CJEB-FM CIGB-FM

 

Playlists were obtained from Mediabase relating to 13 specific weeks during 2008. The weeks selected were spaced 4 weeks apart from January to December.

A database was assembled based on the two definitions above.2 Definition A entailed the compilation of French-language artists’ names in the “Nouveautés” section of the issues of Le Palmarès published since 1995. Definition B required the compilation of all of the information on French-language artists from the charts in Le Palmarès that are specified in the definition.

Results

This column chart depicts the percentages of emerging artists played by French language stations according to Definition 1 and Definition 2 . The findings are based on a 13 week sample of 2008 and are displayed according to station formats. Adulte contemporain: Definition 1 - 7.1%, Definition 2 - 6.8%. Album genre rock: Definition 1 - 23.9%, Definition 2 - 10.2%. Grand succès contemporain: Definition 1 - 14.5%, Definition 2 - 11.2%.

Observations


1 CD or digital recordings receive gold certifications with sales of 40,000 units.

2 With the assistance of Itplanit Services Corp.

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