That is an excellent question.
Yes, we are used to managing and to doing miracles with crumbs. We agree that the amount of$10 million we are requesting is an additional sum. Over the years, the funding provided to the Canada Music Fund has been approximately $22 million or $23 million. That is where it is at currently. Of course, that is not enough given the current state of affairs. We could not include everything in our 20-page brief. We submit much longer briefs to the CRTC.
Just to give you a figure, from 2005 to today, the music industry in Quebec lost 72% market share. In 2005 we sold 13 million albums, and we sold fewer than 3 million in 2017. It's a slaughter. This is really important.
The money from public sources is important, but we are used to living with and to taking risks as entrepreneurs. We will continue to do that, but in the meantime we are asking the government to amend laws such as the Copyright Act and the Broadcasting Act.
There are people and businesses that benefit from our work, from the artists' work, by selling bandwidth, which is mainly—not only, but in the main—used to consume cultural content. These Internet access providers are Canadian businesses. I am not talking about foreign businesses but about Bell, Videotron, Shaw, Rogers. These businesses don't contribute to the production of content.
We are also asking the government to support us in maintaining our production capacity, and we are asking it especially to give us the means to go and get the funding where it is, that is to say not necessarily from the pockets of consumers and Canadian taxpayers, but from the businesses that make money on our products. I am referring to Internet access providers and online music businesses or companies like Netflix. We are asking for a host of measures. Ten million dollars does not seem like much. It would be added to public funding. Of course, it isn't enough, but that is one of the measures we ask that the government put in place.