The Canadian music industry is grappling with the “copyright issue of our lifetime” – Artificial Intelligence – and a shifting regulatory landscape that must move away from 20th century mandates, Music Canada CEO Patrick Rogers told Departure Festival + Conference.

In a state of the industry address, Rogers reflected on a decade with the non-profit trade association and lessons learned, starting with the idea that the industry is stronger because it has learned to unite behind core values.

“I believe that the industry ultimately agrees on about 90% of everything that is important to us,” Rogers said. “That music has value, that copyright is the backbone of our industry… We can have interesting conversations and arguments about 5% of the topics—specific regulations or wording in the Copyright Act, etc.”

Rogers said one of the challenges being faced by emerging musicians in the current on-demand consumer landscape, is that artists are constantly competing against “the greatest of all time.”

“Wayne Gretzky played against Mario Lemieux, not Bobby Orr. Sidney Crosby plays against Ovechkin, not the past. Tomorrow’s star will take on their contemporaries, not a rogues gallery of the Hall of Fame,” said Rogers. “But that’s not the case [for musicians]. You’re up against everything ever recorded from everywhere in the world…the consequence for musicians is that you are not just trying to break through the greatest of today. You are trying to break through the greatest of all time.”

Addressing the ongoing implementation of the Online Streaming Act, Rogers issued a  reality check for regulators – that in 2026, the government cannot “make” people watch or listen to content.

“This isn’t about being defeatist, it’s about understanding the laws of our new nature,” Rogers continued. “The gravity of our 20th century broadcasting system has been replaced by the weightlessness of gatekeeper-less streaming in the 21st century. We can’t have regulations focused on programming, undeterred by whether anyone watched or listened to it, because what is measured is what is blindly broadcast. Because today, the medium of choice is choice. And I think we could be okay with it if we accepted it.”

“From the beginning, I’ve argued that C-11 shouldn’t have been about bringing the streamers into the Canadian broadcasting system, but instead the focus should be bringing up Canada’s regulatory system into the streaming era. There’s still time. There are new pressures that we need to deal with, and I think moving on from a world where we think we can guide Canadians watching and listening to a place where we are building launch pads for Canada’s overwhelming talent to succeed on the global stage is where we need to go.”

Rogers noted that 2025 was a great year for AI licensing, with Music Canada members and  independent labels signing licensing agreements with some of the biggest AI platforms in the world.

“Yes, how this all takes shape is still coming. No, we haven’t seen the new platforms and products that these agreements will lead to yet,” Rogers said. “But in 10 years’ time, I believe we will look back at those deals as the turning point between piracy and commercialization – the difference between Napster and iTunes. And we did it all while the people who scraped the world’s greatest music still had our stuff in their models. It’s like negotiating with bank robbers while they’re still in the vault. But the only way majors indies, publishers, movie producers, and authors will be able to continue to negotiate free market deals with the biggest tech companies in the world, is if the government here in Canada and governments around the world, don’t cave on text and data mining exceptions, to copyright.”

Despite the digital nature of the industry, Rogers concluded by emphasizing that traditional political advocacy – known in politics as “ground game” – remains the most effective tool for creators. He pointed to the G7’s recent inclusion of pro-intellectual property language as a victory for persistent, face-to-face lobbying.

“Reaching out, talking face to face is so important,” asserted Rogers. “After the Digital Revolution, changes to society after the pandemic, changing cultural norms, it’s still an incredibly important part of the political process,” said Rogers. “In the lead up to last year’s [G7] summit, we met with anyone we could get our hands on, gave them the language we’d like to see, and kept calling for follow-up meetings until they begged us to stop. And then we called again. And sure enough, it was only six or seven words, but there it was…I think the same can be said about the recent [Canadian] Heritage committee report out of Ottawa. After studying AI and culture for over six months, their number one recommendation was the copyright of artists and rights holders must be respected and maintained while AI is trained and adopted.”