For every complex problem there is an answer that is clear, simple, and wrong.
(H. L. Mencken)

Document T014

Étude de marché sur la copie privée d'enregistrements musicaux au Canada

Prepared for the Canadian Private Copying Collective, May 1999

The Canadian Private Copying Collective was preparing its case in favour of levies on blank cassettes and blank CD disks to be presented to Copyright Board Canada. The case required the estimation of the amount of music privatly copied in Canada over a year, as well as the measurement of attitudes regarding the imposition of levies on blank media. Circum Network Inc., in cooperation with Decima Research, conducted a telephone survey of 2700 Canadians aged 12 and over, and prepared an analytical report on these issues.

411 pages, 1446k [PDF format]

Document T021

Étude de marché sur la copie privée d'enregistrements musicaux au Canada, 2000

Prepared for the Canadian Private Copying Collective, August 2000

The Canadian Private Copying Collective was preparing its new case in favour of levies on blank cassettes and blank CD disks to be presented to Copyright Board Canada. The case required the estimation of the amount of music privatly copied in Canada over twelve months of 1999 and 2000, as well as an estimation of the comparative value of the privately made copy. Circum Network Inc., with the help of Écho Sondage, conducted two telephone surveys, one of 2400 and one of 15000 Canadians aged 12 and over, and prepared an analytical report on these issues.

345 pages, 2096k [PDF format]

Document T056

Étude comparative perceptuelle de la qualité sonore de fichiers audio-numériques originaux et comprimés

Prepared for the Canadian Private Copying Collective, December 2002

This study is based on the results of a Web survey conducted in December 2002. The respondents were 258 Canadians age 12 to 49 who had a multimedia computer with Internet access in their homes at the time of the survey. Each respondent compared the sound quality of two versions of the same selections of music: the original version and a version that had been compressed using the MP3 algorithm. The following conclusions were drawn from the responses.

In 14% of the cases, the respondents correctly identified the original track of music as being of better quality.

In 41% of the comparisons that they made, the respondents judged the two versions to be of similar quality.
In 37% of the cases, the respondents identified the original track as having better sound quality, but from this value we must subtract the 22% of the respondents who preferred the sound quality of the compressed track.
The equipment used did not affect the results in any statistically significant way.
The sound quality of selections of modern and classical music was more readily discernible than that of selections of rock, jazz, and hardcore.

The respondents who did perceive a difference in the sound quality of the tracks they listed to assigned it a monetary value of 20%.

On average, the respondents were prepared to pay $18.30 for an album with the better sound quality that they had discerned, or $3.63 more than for an album of perceived poorer sound quality.
The assigned monetary value of the perceived difference in sound quality was the same regardless of whether the track in question was objectively the one of better quality or the one of worse quality. Thus this value depended entirely on perceived sound quality.
The monetary value ascribed to the better sound quality was the same for all five genres of music tested, but greater for the genres that the particular respondent liked best.
The assigned monetary value of the better sound quality decreases as the comparison price for the lower sound quality increases.

METHODOLOGY

This study is based on data gathered from 258 respondents in an on-line survey conducted from December 6 to 18, 2002. These respondents were recruited by Echo Sondage telephone, on December 3 and 4, from a list of the respondents to Circum Network Inc.'s Music Monitor survey who had reported that they had a multimedia computer and Internet access in their homes and had agreed to be contacted again. Only persons who were age 12 to 49 at the time they were originally interviewed and whose interviews were completed between January and September 2002 were included in this study.

In the recruitment phase of this study, the refusal rate and the response rate, as calculated by industry- standard methods, were 23% and 44%, respectively. In the data-collection phase, the response rate was 59%.

A random sample of the size used in this study produces a margin of sampling error no greater than ± 4.7 percentage points for proportion estimates for the entire sample, taking the effects associated with the sampling plan into account. The margins of sampling error for sub-groups within the sample are larger.

The estimates produced from these data were adjusted for gender, age, region of residence, and mother tongue, so as to match the distributions calculated in the Music Monitor survey for the population segment used in this study.

The survey questionnaire was designed to meet two research objectives. It comprised six sections, and the number of questions asked varied with the responses provided. The minimum was 6 questions, and the maximum was 23. A music CD prepared especially for this study was sent to each respondent's home. This CD contained five selections of five different genres of music, each recorded in two different formats. The respondents were asked to listen to both versions of each selection on their own audio equipment and to indicate whether either one had better sound quality than the other.

109 pages, 960k [PDF format]

Document T066

Étude de marché sur la copie privée d'enregistrements musicaux au Canada, 2005-2006

Prepared for the Canadian Private Copying Collective, November 2006.

This study is the fourth in a series analyzing private copying of music in Canada. The first three reports discuss the following periods: 1998, 2000 and 2001-2002. The present study describes the results from more than 60,000 telephone interviews conducted at the pace of 1 000 per month between July 2001 and June 2006.

Key results follow:

The private copying of music is an important phenomenon which is as frequent in 2005-2006 as it was in 2001-2002.
Following the numeric revolution documented in 2001-2002, the periods 2004-2005 and 2005-2006 see the initiation of a new wave of change toward portable digital audio-recorders.
The copy of pre-recorded music is the main use made by individuals of audiocassettes, blank CDs and portable digital audio-recorders.
The Internet and pre-recorded CDs are sources of equal importance for private copying of music.

675 pages, 5.4M [PDF format]

Document T077

Étude de marché sur la copie privée d'enregistrements musicaux au Canada, 2006-2007

Prepared for the Canadian Private Copying Collective, January 2008.

This study is the fifth in a series analyzing private copying of music in Canada. The first four reports discuss the following periods: 1998, 2000, 2001-2002 and 2005-2006. The present study describes the results from more than 72,000 telephone interviews conducted at the pace of 1 000 per month between July 2001 and June 2007.

Key results follow:

The private copying of musical recordings is a growing phenomenon: in 2006-2007, there were more copies made than in any of the previous years.
Following the digital revolution documented in 2001-2002, the periods 2004-2005 to 2006-2007 see a new movement toward recording on digital audio-recorders.
The copying of prerecorded music is the most important use made by individuals of casettes, blank CDs and digital audio-recorders.
The Internet and prerecorded CDs are equally important sources of private copying.

695 pages, 5.6M [PDF format]

Document T091

The Use of Blank CDs for Music Copying in 2018 and 2019: Recent Trends and Projections

Prepared by Circum Newtork Inc.

Circum has been involved in research about the private copying of music in Canada since 1999. Several reports made available on the Circum website pertain to this particular issue. In 2017, Circum was called upon to contribute to the case of the Canadian Private Copying Collective (CPCC) relating to the levies to be collected for the sale or disposition, in Canada, of blank audio recording media for the years 2018 and 2019.

The purpose of the Circum report was threefold. First, it provided the most recent available data on the copying of music onto recordable CDs for those variables considered by the Copyright Board of Canada in its decision to certify the 2017 private copying tariff. Second, projections were developed for the years of the proposed tariffs, 2018 and 2019. Finally, the report considered these projected figures in light of the standards the Copyright Board has applied in previous private copying decisions to determine whether recordable CDs may still be considered ordinarily used for the purpose of copying music. This report was a direct update of Exhibit CPCC-3 (Private Copying Tariff: 2017) entitled "The Use of Blank CDs for Music Copying in 2017: Recent Trends and Projections", dated May 13, 2016, and prepared by Paul Audley, Lisa Freeman, and Benoît Gauthier.

On December 1, 2017, the Copyright Board of Canada certified a tariff of 29¢ per blank CD for 2018 and 2019.

470K [PDF format]