Nielsen Music/MRC Data’s Canada Midyear Report reveals that amid unprecedented challenges, total audio consumption grew 5.7% over prior year.

The Canadian music industry experienced a tumultuous first half of 2020 when the coronavirus hit the country, prompting stay-at-home orders and suspending concerts by late March. Fortunately, recorded-music consumption has proven resilient as Audio streams are up 16.6% to over 42 billion. Total album-equivalent audio consumption — a measure of total consumption, including sales of albums and songs, as well as audio on-demand streams — was up 5.7% year over year, helped by new releases fromThe Weeknd, Justin Bieber and Eminem. Highlighting the power of a TikTok meme in the social media age, Roddy Ricch’s “The Box” topped all tracks with 82 million on-demand streams, and Doja Cat ranked 12th with 41 million streams with her hit “Say So.” And as people spent more time at home, country music was the big winner with a 22.7% gain in audio streams.

Download MRC Data’s full 2020 Midyear report here to find exclusive insights about an extraordinary six months in music business history.