Spotify and Apple Music Fire Back Against Quebec’s Bill 109

Quebec City. Photo Credit: Rich Martello

Spotify and Apple Music are pushing back against Quebec’s Bill 109, which would impose streaming quotas and different requirements for digital platforms to prioritize French-language content.

The on-demand giants just recently took aim at the proposed law, which, according to its text, would apply “to every digital platform that offers a service for viewing audiovisual content online or listening to music.”

As the all-encompassing description covers a variety of DSPs, not solely those dealing in music, the 24-page Bill 109 last week drew criticism from YouTube and Netflix. Now, Spotify and Apple (which, of course, operates both Music and TV) are likewise arguing against the measure, which they believe would harm personalized recommendations en route to compromising the user experience.

Furthermore, Spotify in a filing claimed that the bill would therefore push ticked-off users towards unauthorized (and consequently quota-free) platforms, ultimately having a negative effect on Quebec-based artists in the process, per the Montreal Gazette.

Meanwhile, Apple Music emphasized a similar position and reiterated the existing efforts of its Montreal team to plug French-language works from Quebecois talent.

On the other side of the debate, Culture and Communications Minister Mathieu Lacombe is leading the Bill 109 push as sponsor, and lawmakers including Côte-du-Sud MNA Mathieu Rivest have framed the legislation as a means of preserving Quebec’s “cultural sovereignty.”

“Of the 10,000 most listened-to songs in Quebec in 2024, Madam Speaker, listen carefully, only 4.6% were French-language tracks from our province,” Rivest said before the National Assembly earlier in November. “For me, there is a clear link between the decline in the use of French in Quebec and changes in digital practices and consumption habits among the Quebec population.”

As many will recognize, from Canberra to Ottawa, discussions about streaming mainstays’ ability to obliterate local content and scenes aren’t new. Nor is the opposing argument that digital platforms can and do boost regional media on the world stage.

But at the top level, it seems difficult to make a definitive (and, more importantly, accurate) statement either way. In the first place, any reliable conclusion would have to account for homegrown talent’s streaming-fueled international royalties and adjacent fanbase-development benefits, the latter being inherently tough to quantify.

And specifically in Quebec, population 9.1 million, Spotify said it’d actually registered a 16% consumption spike for French-language (but not necessarily local) music in 2024, including a 32% jump for listeners between the ages of 18 and 24.

As for where Bill 109 goes from here, the legislation has made its way to the Committee on Culture and Education for a “clause-by-clause consideration.”

According to a pair of documents from this committee, members rejected an amendment that would’ve established a full-fledged right “to the discoverability of cultural content.” However, they also approved a trio of amendments concerning the multifaceted Bill 109’s registration requirements for digital platforms.