Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Good morning. Thank you for having invited us to appear before you today.
I will briefly talk about the key points we want to present to you today. Essentially, these are statistical numbers. We do not have any definite opinions, but our numbers can still provide interesting insight.
Based on our studies, we can see that the use of cultural products and services has been decreasing for the past number of years. The latest data, from 2013, show that results are rather negative in terms of use and profits.
In Quebec, for example, CD sales, that is sales of physical products, decreased from 13 million units in 2004 to 6 million units in 2013. Moreover, this decrease in the sale of physical products was not made up in sales of electronic products. You may think that this would be counterbalanced by sales of electronic products on iTunes, in particular. We have seen an overall decrease in the number of sales of physical and digital sound recordings. In one decade, the music and song recording market decreased by 30%. This is a significant number.
The impacts of this decrease are greater in the case of Quebec products. We noted that, in 2013, 38% of recorded audio products sold were Quebec products. That number used to be 50%. This means that the market for Quebec products shrank, and this occurred within the context of an overall decrease.
Why was there a greater decrease in the sale of Quebec products compared with other products? On the market for physical products such as CDs, 50% of the products bought by Quebeckers were Quebec products. In the case of digital albums sold online, however, one-third of the products were from Quebec, but this number fell to 7% for digital tracks sold individually. While sales of digital albums and tracks are increasing, the market share of national products of these digital markets is shrinking. The numbers have therefore fallen from 50% of the market to about one-third.
In addition to this, there is what is happening in the area of song and music shows. Our study showed that numbers are also falling in this field. We often think that show ticket sales will compensate for any losses in music sales. However, show attendance and markets have also been decreasing. Things changed between 2004 and 2012. The proportion of income associated with Quebec shows went from half to about one-third. That is clearly a decrease.
I have to keep it short, but I do not have a clock to tell me how much time I have left.