Under Tariff 8, Barenaked Ladies would need 9,216 plays of “If I Had $1,000,000” to earn enough royalties to buy one box of Kraft Dinner

The Copyright Board of Canada has recently set one of the worst royalty rates in the world to music streaming. It’s called Tariff 8. And it means that musicians around the world will be paid 90% less when their music is streamed by Canadian consumers.

How bad is it? Under the new rates, The Barenaked Ladies would need 9216 plays of their classic song, ‘If I Had $1,000,000’ to earn enough royalties to buy one box of Kraft Dinner, not including the ‘dijon ketchup’ they sing about in the song.

Here’s how many plays an artist would need to buy some of the other items mentioned in the song:

“If I had a million dollars… ” / 1 million dollars = 9.8 billion plays

“I’d buy you a house…” / Average price of a single home in Canada: $413,215 = More than 4 billion plays

“I’d buy you furniture for your house, (Maybe a nice chesterfield or an ottoman)” / Nice sofa = 16 million plays, matching ottoman = almost 5 million plays

“I’d buy you a fur coat (but not a real fur coat that’s cruel)” / Faux Fur Coat = 17 million plays

“I’d buy you an exotic pet (Like a llama or an emu)” / Llama = almost 3 million plays

“We wouldn’t have to eat Kraft Dinner. (But we would eat Kraft Dinner. Of course we would, we’d just eat more.)” / Kraft Dinner = 9216 plays for a box of KD

“I’d buy you a green dress (but not a real green dress, that’s cruel)” / A real green dress (that’s cruel!) = almost 16 million plays

“I’d buy you some art (a Picasso or a Garfunkel)” / Picasso recently sold at Sotheby’s for $6.5 million CAD = almost 64 billion plays

 “I’d buy you a monkey (haven’t you always wanted a monkey?)” / (It is illegal to own a monkey in Toronto.)

 “I’d be rich.” / With royalties from the Tariff 8 decision, you would not be rich.

More than seventy Canadian record labels and associations have signed their support for Re:Sound’s Application for Judicial Review of the Copyright Board’s Tariff 8 decision. A growing coalition of artists, labels, industry associations, and music fans are speaking out against the Copyright Board decision; to learn more and to add your voice, Like and Share the I Stand For Music Facebook Page, or tweet using the hashtag #IStand4Music.