Radio programmers fear messing up with Canadian content rules. There is nothing worse than a station not meeting all their weekly Cancon requirements. The sh*tstorm that results is biblical. Trust me. No programmer/music director/GM/group owner wants to go through the ordeal. It’s a strike against your broadcasting licence that doesn’t disappear for years.
This is why radio people need to know if a song is guaranteed to officially and legally qualify as Canadian content.
For years, we’ve used the MAPL system
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- M: The music is written by a Canadian or a landed immigrant.
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- A: The artist is a Canadian, native-born or new citizen
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- P: This is weird. You’d think it stands for “producer,” but it doesn’t. It declares that the song was recorded wholly in Canada or performed and broadcast live in Canada. I know, I know. It doesn’t make much sense, but it dates back to the song “Conquistador,” a live recording by Procol Harum with the Edmonton Symphony Orchestra back in the 70s..
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- L: The lyrics are written by a Canadian or a landed immigrant.
For a song to officially and legally qualify for Cancon–i.e. approved by the bureaucracy that is the almighty CRTC–two of the four criteria in any combination must be indisputably true and accurate.
Up until now, the only way we programmers knew if a song was Cancon was by a label on the record or CD. You’ve seen it. It’s a pie chart with M-A-P-L in a little pie chart. If a quadrant is filled in, that criteria has been met. This image shows the MAPL symbol for a song that’s 100% Cancon. 
This MAPL symbol shows that a song is still Canadian, but it fulfills the minimum threshold of 50%. 
But what are programmers to do when dealing with digital tracks? We have to rely on the word of the record label, but that excuse doesn’t work with the CRTC if you run afoul of the Cancon rules. And to be honest, record labels often get it wrong, especially with the “P” designation.
Things also get weird when things like songwriting credits–those who create the music and lyrics–are split among a number of people, some of whom might be Canadian and some who are foreigners.
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This famously created a problem for Bryan Adams with the song (“Everything I Do) I Do It For You”, which sold 15 million copies worldwide. Despite Kingston, Ontario-born Bryan singing the song and co-writing everything, the CRTC determined that because of the co-writing by producer Robert “Mutt” Lange, the CRTC originally granted “Everything” only 1.5 Cancon credits. Therefore, this Bryan Adams song was not Canadian enough for the CRTC.
Man, there was a storm over that one. Bryan Adams still hates the Cancon rules today and is very vocal about it. Fortunately, cooler heads prevailed and the song is now considered Canadian content.
On the other side of the coin, Lenny Kravitz IS Canadian–as long as he’s playing his cover of The Guess Who’s “American Woman.” Why is this Manhattan-born singer officially and legally a Canadian for these four minutes and 22 seconds? Because the music and lyrics of “American Woman” were written by two Canadians: Burton Cummings and Randy Bachman.
It’s also why Eddie Vedder is a Canuck while singing “Hard Sun.” That’s a cover by an Ontario musician who worked under the name Indio. He wrote the music and lyrics, ergo it is Cancon even though it was re-recorded by an American in America using American musicians and released by an American record label on the soundtrack of a movie made in America starring Americans.
You see how things can get confusing. Gee, if only there was a database where a programmer could go to determine if a song was, in fact, officially and legally Canadian so that when the CRTC inevitably audits your station you’ll know that you’re in line with the rules.
Well, hallelujah, there now is such a thing. The CRTC has just launched the Canadian Music Selections Database. It’s free and downloadable, designed to make it “easier for broadcasters, artists and the public to identify Canadian music,” And it seems to be pretty comprehensive with 1,969 pages of songs at launch.
This is the first time the status of all Cancon songs are available in the same place. The CRTC promises to keep adding to this database (including French, Indigenous and third-language music) on a regular basis.
Good timing, too, because this will help with analysis of streaming service offerings. How much official and legal Cancon is being streamed?
Radio station program and music directors will be combing through this new list for the rest of the year, checking the official rulings with what they have in their station’s database. Songs that were once considered Cancon will be reclassified. Meanwhile, songs that no one suspected fit the bill will be added to playlists.
How many changes will be made to Cancon categories? It’s unclear because radio stations have been very diligent policing Cancon themselves. But it”ll be interesting to see if listeners notice. And if you’re just a music fan, the new database is a fun thing to browse. Give it a shot.
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