Don’t regulate us like radio, music streamer Spotify tells CRTC

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This article was published 20/06/2025 (482 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

OTTAWA – Music streamer Spotify says Canada’s federal broadcast regulator shouldn’t impose rules meant for radio on streaming services.

Appearing before a CRTC hearing Friday, company representatives compared regulating Spotify like a radio station to treating Uber like a horse and buggy operation.

“To apply yesterday’s tools to today’s platforms risks dulling Canada’s success on the global music stage,” said Xenia Manning, Spotify’s director of global music policy.

“It is essential to assess whether a real problem exists that justifies regulatory intervention. In our view, the evidence is clear. There is no market failure in audio streaming that would warrant intervention by the CRTC.”

In its written submission, Spotify argued the CRTC doesn’t have the jurisdiction to extend rules governing commercial negotiations and disputes in the broadcast sector to online players.

Spotify said the Broadcasting Act doesn’t give the CRTC the authority to “regulate the terms of trade between online undertakings, including good faith negotiations and commercial disputes.”

It said the CRTC’s proposals “would see it imposing dispute resolution and commercial negotiation requirements on online undertakings that are plainly outside the scope of broadcasting.”

The CRTC is holding a hearing on market dynamics as part of its work to implement the Online Streaming Act, which updated broadcasting laws to capture online platforms.

During the hearing, large telecom and broadcasting companies like Bell and Rogers called on the CRTC to loosen existing rules for traditional players.

They took aim at regulations governing how cable channels must be packaged and disputes about carriage of cable channels.

Bell, which appeared Wednesday, asked the CRTC to get rid of the rule the regulator implemented nearly a decade ago requiring companies to offer a $25 basic cable package.

In its opening statement Friday, Rogers asked the CRTC to dramatically reduce regulation of cable companies.

Colette Watson, president of Rogers’ media division, said less than half of Canadian households now subscribe to cable, satellite or IPTV service. 

“Canadian ownership groups cannot survive another decade of disproportionate regulation,” she said. 

The CRTC is holding a series of hearings as part of its work under the Online Streaming Act.

Spotify, along with Amazon and Apple, is fighting in court an earlier order requiring streamers to make CRTC-ordered financial contributions to Canadian content and news.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published June 20, 2025.