Foreign-owned descriptive statistics (n = 41)
| Career stage | n | Canadian listeners | Global listeners | LF ratio | Social followers | Global reach |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Total mean (median) | Total mean (median) | Mean (median) | Total mean (median) | Mean (median) | ||
| Developing | 19 | 474,604 24,979 (12,548) | 1,041,751 54,829 (37,019) | 0.21 (0.14) | 1,690,300 88,963 (32,700) | 7(6) |
| Mid-level | 12 | 1,026,047 85,504 (70,744) | 3,765,533 313,794 (169,037) | 0.33 (0.28) | 5,992,600 499,383 (302,950) | 10(8) |
| Mainstream | 9 | 2,212,381 245,820 (209,020) | 22,066,406 2,451,823 (1,619,480) | 0.23 (0.12) | 45,992,000 5,110,222 (749,100) | 14 (15) |
| Superstar | 1 | 760,800 760,800 (760,800) | 10,720,407 10,720,407 (10,720,407) | 0.06 (0.06) | 2,200,000 2,200,000 (2,200,000) | 20 (20) |
| All artists | 41 | 4,473,832 109,118 (38,684) | 37,594,097 916,929 (136,900) | 1.43 (0.27) | 55,874,900 1,362,802 (185,100) | 9.75 (8) |
Controlling for career stage
| Career stage | Digital performance metric | Correlation coefficient | p-value | Explanation |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Developing | Canadian listeners | –0.220 | p < 0.001 | Weak negative correlation. Independent labels have fewer Canadian listeners while major labels have more among developing artists. |
| Global listeners | –0.044 | p = 0.355 | No significant correlation. Label affiliation doesn’t affect global reach for developing artists. | |
| Listener-follower ratio | 0.106 | p = 0.023 | Weak positive correlation. Independent labels have slightly better conversion ratios among developing artists. | |
| Social media audience | –0.201 | p < 0.001 | Weak negative correlation. Independent labels have smaller social media audiences while major labels have larger among developing artists. | |
| Global reach | –0.110 | p = 0.019 | Weak negative correlation. Independent labels have lower global reach while major labels have higher among developing artists. | |
| Mid-level | Canadian listeners | –0.269 | p = 0.036 | Weak negative correlation. Independent labels have fewer Canadian listeners among mid-level artists. |
| Global listeners | 0.164 | p = 0.207 | No significant correlation. Label affiliation doesn’t significantly affect global reach for mid-level artists. | |
| Listener-follower ratio | –0.068 | p = 0.602 | No significant correlation. Label affiliation doesn’t affect conversion ratios for mid-level artists. | |
| Social media audience | –0.082 | p = 0.530 | No significant correlation. Label affiliation doesn’t affect social media audience for mid-level artists. | |
| Global reach | 0.283 | p = 0.027 | Weak positive correlation. Independent labels have higher global reach among mid-level artists. | |
| Mainstream | Canadian listeners | –0.116 | p = 0.580 | No significant correlation. Label affiliation doesn’t affect Canadian listeners for mainstream artists. |
| Global listeners | –0.013 | p = 0.952 | No significant correlation. Label affiliation doesn’t affect global listeners for mainstream artists. | |
| Listener-follower Ratio | 0.094 | p = 0.654 | No significant correlation. Label affiliation doesn’t affect conversion ratios for mainstream artists. | |
| Social media audience | –0.324 | p = 0.115 | No significant correlation. Label affiliation doesn’t significantly affect social media audience for mainstream artists. | |
| Global reach | 0.135 | p = 0.520 | No significant correlation. Label affiliation doesn’t affect global reach for mainstream artists. | |
| Superstar | Canadian listeners | –0.737 | p = 0.473 | No significant correlation (small sample). Cannot infer meaningful relationship for superstar artists. |
| Global listeners | 0.848 | p = 0.356 | No significant correlation (small sample). Cannot infer meaningful relationship for superstar artists. | |
| Listener-follower ratio | 0.920 | p = 0.256 | No significant correlation (small sample). Cannot infer meaningful relationship for superstar artists. | |
| Social media audience | –0.324* | p = 0.115* | Mixed results due to small sample size. Limited interpretability for superstar artists. | |
| Global reach | –0.052 | p = 0.967 | No significant correlation (small sample). Cannot infer meaningful relationship for superstar artists. |
Chartmetric career stage
| Career stage | Definition |
|---|---|
| Superstar | Top 1.2 k artists having releases <30 years ago |
| Mainstream | Top 2 k–8 k artists |
| Mid-level | Top 8 k–30 k artists |
| Developing | All other artists |
Mann–Whitney U test
| Variable | W | p-value | Explanation |
|---|---|---|---|
| Global listeners | 4,556 | 3.089e–09 | Statistically significant difference (p < 0.05) |
| Canadian listeners | 3,080 | 8.799e–14 | Statistically significant difference (p < 0.05) |
| LF ratio | 9,256 | 0.2929 | No statistically significant difference (p > 0.05) |
| Social media followers | 3,262.5 | 3.634e–13 | Statistically significant difference (p < 0.05) |
| Global reach | 5,833 | 3.328e–06 | Statistically significant difference (p < 0.05) |
Point-Biserial correlations between label affiliation and digital performance
| Digital performance metric | Correlation coefficient | p-value | Explanation |
|---|---|---|---|
| Canadian listeners | –0.290 | p < 0.001 | Weak negative correlation. Independent labels tend to have fewer Canadian listeners while major labels tend to have more. The correlation is weak, suggesting other factors likely play a bigger role. |
| Global listeners | –0.127 | p = 0.003 | Weak negative correlation. Independent labels tend to have fewer global listeners while major labels tend to have more. The correlation is weak, suggesting other factors likely play a bigger role. |
| Listener-follower ratio | –0.125 | p = 0.772 | No statistically significant correlation. Label affiliation doesn’t significantly influence how well artists convert listeners into social media followers. |
| Social media audience | –0.216 | p < 0.001 | Weak negative correlation. Independent labels tend to have smaller social media audiences while major labels tend to have larger audiences. The correlation is weak. |
| Global reach | –0.155 | p < 0.001 | Weak negative correlation. Independent labels tend to have lower global reach while major labels tend to have higher reach. The correlation is weak, suggesting other factors likely play a bigger role. |
Refined analysis of platform-specific correlations by career stage
| Career stage | Platform | Correlation coefficient | p-value | Explanation |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Developing | Spotify | –0.071 | p = 0.132 | No significant correlation. Label affiliation doesn’t affect Spotify followers for developing artists. |
| YouTube | –0.054 | p = 0.255 | No significant correlation. Label affiliation doesn’t affect YouTube followers for developing artists. | |
| –0.179 | p < 0.001 | Weak negative correlation. Independent labels have fewer Instagram followers while major labels have more among developing artists. | ||
| TikTok | –0.181 | p < 0.001 | Weak negative correlation. Independent labels have fewer TikTok followers while major labels have more among developing artists. | |
| Mid-Level | Spotify | –0.102 | p = 0.436 | No significant correlation. Label affiliation doesn’t affect Spotify followers for mid-level artists. |
| YouTube | –0.039 | p = 0.763 | No significant correlation. Label affiliation doesn’t affect YouTube followers for mid-level artists. | |
| –0.049 | p = 0.710 | No significant correlation. Label affiliation doesn’t affect Instagram followers for mid-level artists. | ||
| TikTok | –0.068 | p = 0.605 | No significant correlation. Label affiliation doesn’t affect TikTok followers for mid-level artists. | |
| Mainstream | Spotify | –0.185 | p = 0.376 | No significant correlation. Label affiliation doesn’t affect Spotify followers for mainstream artists. |
| YouTube | –0.204 | p = 0.329 | No significant correlation. Label affiliation doesn’t affect YouTube followers for mainstream artists. | |
| –0.231 | p = 0.260 | No significant correlation. Label affiliation doesn’t affect Instagram followers for mainstream artists. | ||
| TikTok | –0.391 | p = 0.053 | No significant correlation. Label affiliation doesn’t significantly affect TikTok followers for mainstream artists. | |
| Superstar | Spotify | 0.996 | p = 0.057 | No significant correlation (small sample). Cannot infer meaningful relationship for superstar artists. |
| YouTube | 0.777 | p = 0.433 | No significant correlation (small sample). Cannot infer meaningful relationship for superstar artists. | |
| 0.883 | p = 0.311 | No significant correlation (small sample). Cannot infer meaningful relationship for superstar artists. | ||
| TikTok | –0.972 | p = 0.151 | No significant correlation (small sample). Cannot infer meaningful relationship for superstar artists. |
Distribution of artists by label type and career stage
| Career stage | Canadian-owned independent (%) | Canadian major labels (%) | Total (%) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Developing | 434 (86.6) | 19 (46.3) | 453 (83.6) |
| Mid-level | 49 (9.8) | 12 (29.3) | 61 (11.3) |
| Mainstream | 16 (3.2) | 9 (22.0) | 25 (4.6) |
| Superstar | 2 (0.4) | 1 (2.4) | 3 (0.6) |
| Total | 501 (100) | 41 (100) | 542 (100) |
Canadian-owned labels descriptive statistics by career stage (n = 501)
| Career stage | n | Canadian listeners | Global listeners | LF ratio | Social followers | Global reach |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Total mean (median) | Total mean (median) | Mean (median) | Total mean (median) | Mean (median) | ||
| Developing | 434 | 2,784,676 6,416 (1,362) | 13,816,272 31,835 (4,738) | 0.65 (0.38) | 9,897,902 22,806 (6,350) | 4(2) |
| Mid-level | 49 | 2,379,905 48,569 (29,826) | 21,728,874 443,446 (469,708) | 0.29 (0.23) | 17,075,700 348,484 (147,700) | 15 (14) |
| Mainstream | 16 | 3,198,280 199,892 (151,593) | 38,294,869 2,393,429 (1,601,646) | 0.28 (0.16) | 26,843,300 1,677,706 (890,050) | 15 (16) |
| Superstar | 2 | 1,245,952 622,976 (622,976) | 38,721,736 19,360,868 (19,360,868) | 0.29 (0.29) | 24,600,000 12,300,000 (12,300,000) | 20 (20) |
| All artists | 501 | 9,608,813 19,179 (2,200) | 112,561,751 224,674 (7,900) | 1.25 (0.19) | 78,416,902 156,521 (8,700) | 5.5 (2) |