The CRTC is conducting research on whether it should make changes to what counts as Canadian Content on radio, as streaming moves us into a new era and the old rules trace back to 1971. 

Radio veteran Alan Cross has a suggestion he'd like to see, but so far has not been considered by the Commission:

"Radio stations would play more emerging and up-and-coming artists if there was an incentive to do so. Playing unfamiliar music to audiences is risky — people are more likely to tune out and away if they hear something they don’t recognize — so let’s try (again) to make it attractive for radio stations to play more new music. I was involved in a push for this back in 2005, but it ended up going nowhere. Maybe this time.

"Meanwhile, something needs to be done for radio stations that play older music like classic rock, classic hits and oldies. They’re not making old music anymore, so such radio stations and their listeners require special attention in any update of CanCon rules."

It’s time to update the definition of Canadian content. You can have a say