Contents
- Sound recording studio establishments statistics: Canadian regional establishment counts
- Sound recording studio establishments statistics: Canadian regional revenue by province
- Sound recording studio establishments statistics: Canadian operating expenses and profit margins
- Sound recording studio establishments statistics: Canadian studio service revenue
- Sound recording studio establishments statistics: Canadian studio operating cost components
- Sound recording studio establishments statistics: Canadian studio workforce and revenue trends
- Sources
Sound recording studio establishments statistics: Canadian regional establishment counts
Statistics Canada’s archival tables classify the businesses in this series under NAICS 512240 and report statistical establishments as a number. The figures describe historical annual counts, not current totals. Canada recorded 740 establishments in 2005, 587 in 2006 and 691 in 2007. The provincial and regional observations below show how counts varied across those same years. The regional labels follow the table, including “British Columbia and Territories.” (Statistics Canada, Table 3)
| Region | 2005 | 2006 | 2007 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ontario | 305 | 236 | 300 |
| Quebec | 204 | 161 | 176 |
| Atlantic provinces | 30 | 26 | 30 |
| Prairie provinces | 80 | 64 | 75 |
| British Columbia and Territories | 121 | 100 | 110 |
The pattern is not uniform across the three years: the recorded count fell from 2005 to 2006 in each listed region, then rose in 2007. Ontario had the largest regional count in each year, followed by Quebec. These are counts of establishments, not employees, studios per capita, or measures of recording capacity. The table does not establish why the counts changed. (Statistics Canada, Table 3)
The historical table series has later vintages for overlapping years. Its 2006–2008 edition reports the 2007 establishment count as 691, matching the earlier table’s observation, while the later edition supplies a distinct 2008 observation. The overlap should be read as a separately published table vintage, not as an additional year. The available evidence supports a carefully bounded historical picture through 2008; it does not supply a comparable, current regional establishment series. (Statistics Canada, 2006–2008 table)
Sound recording studio establishments statistics: Canadian regional revenue by province
In the 2006–2008 table vintage, 2008 operating revenue for Canadian sound recording studios was $118,313 thousand. The table labels the revenue unit as thousands of dollars and identifies the 2008 observations as preliminary. Ontario reported $48,170 thousand, Quebec $31,380 thousand, and British Columbia and Territories $29,137 thousand. These are the regional revenue observations retained for 2008; the figures should not be read as dollars or as revenue per establishment. (Statistics Canada, Table 3)
| Region | Operating revenue, 2008 (thousands of dollars; preliminary) |
|---|---|
| Canada | $118,313 |
| Ontario | $48,170 |
| Quebec | $31,380 |
| British Columbia and Territories | $29,137 |
For context on the table’s historical reporting, the same 2006–2008 vintage lists Canadian operating revenue of $104,902 thousand for 2007. That value belongs to this later-published table vintage; it is distinct from the earlier 2005–2007 table’s reported 2007 revenue of $104,400 thousand. The values are not combined or treated as two observations for separate years. The table-vintage distinction matters when interpreting historical series: a later publication can report an overlapping year differently. (Statistics Canada, 2005–2007 table; Statistics Canada, 2006–2008 table)
The provincial observations describe operating revenue by the regions used in the source. They do not by themselves show the distribution of studio sizes, service mix, or the contribution of individual businesses. No causal explanation for the regional differences is established by these figures. (Statistics Canada, 2006–2008 table)
Sound recording studio establishments statistics: Canadian operating expenses and profit margins
The early archival tables report operating expenses and operating profit margin alongside revenue and establishment counts. For Canada, the 2005–2007 vintage gives an operating profit margin of 12.5% in 2006 and 15.6% in 2007. Its 2007 operating expenses were $88,100 thousand, and salaries, wages and benefits were $20,100 thousand. The 2006 table row reports operating expenses of $72,600 thousand. All dollar values here are in thousands, as specified by the source. (Statistics Canada, Table 3)
| Year and table vintage | Operating expenses (thousands of dollars) | Operating profit margin |
|---|---|---|
| 2006, 2005–2007 vintage | $72,600 | 12.5% |
| 2007, 2005–2007 vintage | $88,100 | 15.6% |
| 2007, later 2006–2008 vintage | $88,942 | 15.2% |
| 2008, preliminary | $102,251 | 13.6% |
| 2009, revised | $93,307 | 12.4% |
| 2010, revised | $105,274 | 11.3% |
| 2011, preliminary | $89,926 | 14.0% |
The later-published 2007 row gives a margin of 15.2% and expenses of $88,942 thousand, compared with 15.6% and $88,100 thousand in the earlier vintage. These are two reports of the same year in different table vintages, not a continuous year-to-year change. The table also gives 2008 preliminary figures and, in the 2009–2011 edition, revised 2009 and 2010 values and preliminary 2011 values. Those status labels are part of the source record. (Statistics Canada, 2005–2007 table; Statistics Canada, 2006–2008 table; Statistics Canada, 2009–2011 table)
An operating profit margin is the source’s reported percentage indicator; it is not interchangeable with the dollar amount of operating revenue or expenses. The available statistics provide selected years, vintages and revisions, rather than a single unrevised annual sequence. They do not identify reasons for margin variation. (Statistics Canada, 2009–2011 table)
Sound recording studio establishments statistics: Canadian studio service revenue
Statistics Canada’s 2013 profile breaks out operating revenue by service category for surveyed NAICS 512240 firms. It excludes the smallest firms by revenue, so its profile values do not represent precisely the same population as the all-establishment archival tables. The unit is thousands of dollars; 2009 values are revised and 2011 values preliminary. (Statistics Canada, Table 11)
| Operating revenue category | 2009 revised (thousands of dollars) | 2011 preliminary (thousands of dollars) |
|---|---|---|
| Studio recording services for music clients | $26,213 | $19,236 |
| Studio recording services for other purposes | $40,233 | $41,810 |
| On-location live recording services | $2,948 | $3,570 |
| Support services for sound recording | $2,682 | $1,685 |
| All other operating revenue | $16,686 | $19,253 |
The categories distinguish studio recording for music clients from recording for other purposes, on-location live recording, support services, and all other operating revenue. In 2011, the largest of these listed categories was studio recording services for other purposes at $41,810 thousand; studio recording services for music clients were $19,236 thousand. The table records on-location live recording at $3,570 thousand and support services at $1,685 thousand. (Statistics Canada, Table 11)
For 2009, the profile reports $40,233 thousand for services for other purposes and $26,213 thousand for music-client recording. It also reports $2,948 thousand for on-location live recording, $2,682 thousand for support services and $16,686 thousand for all other operating revenue. Comparing these category values across the two years describes the published surveyed-firm profile; it does not establish the causes of differences or make the excluded smallest firms visible. (Statistics Canada, Table 11)
Some regional entries in this profile are marked “x,” indicating suppressed values in the source. Such entries are not zero and are not used to infer a regional amount. For example, 2011 music-client studio recording shows a Canadian figure of $19,236 thousand and Ontario at $7,240 thousand, while Quebec and other regional entries are suppressed. National values and complete categories are therefore the clearest basis for comparison here. (Statistics Canada, Table 11)
Sound recording studio establishments statistics: Canadian studio operating cost components
The same surveyed-firm profile reports operating expenses by component, in thousands of dollars. It excludes the smallest firms by revenue; 2009 values are revised and 2011 values preliminary. The table below keeps the national series together so that the categories and total can be read without treating suppressed regional cells as zero. (Statistics Canada, Table 11)
| Operating expense category | 2009 revised (thousands of dollars) | 2011 preliminary (thousands of dollars) |
|---|---|---|
| Cost of goods sold | $9,299 | $10,231 |
| Depreciation | $4,586 | $4,168 |
| Salaries, wages and benefits | $— | $22,887 |
| All other operating expenses | $41,285 | $38,679 |
| Total operating expenses | $80,043 | $75,964 |
The checked 2009 profile does not provide a value for salaries, wages and benefits, so that cell is left unreported rather than represented as zero. For 2011, the category is $22,887 thousand. The profile also gives 2011 cost of goods sold of $10,231 thousand, depreciation of $4,168 thousand, all other operating expenses of $38,679 thousand, and total operating expenses of $75,964 thousand. (Statistics Canada, Table 11)
For 2009, reported component values include $9,299 thousand for cost of goods sold, $4,586 thousand for depreciation and $41,285 thousand for all other operating expenses; total operating expenses were $80,043 thousand. The component labels are source categories. “All other operating expenses” is a broad reported category, and the profile does not provide detail here to break it down further. (Statistics Canada, Table 11)
Sound recording studio establishments statistics: Canadian studio workforce and revenue trends
The 2011 surveyed-firm profile reports 388 full-time employees, 70 part-time employees and 1,091 contract workers across Canada. The population excludes the smallest firms by revenue, and the year is preliminary. These are separate employment categories as presented by Statistics Canada; contract workers should not be silently combined with employee counts. Regional entries include 100 full-time employees in Quebec, 184 in Ontario, 66 in British Columbia and 38 in all other provinces and territories. Contract worker counts were 337 in Quebec, 425 in Ontario, 216 in British Columbia and 113 in all other provinces and territories. (Statistics Canada, Table 11)
The same profile reports 41 part-time employees in Quebec and 13 in Ontario, while the British Columbia and all other provinces and territories entries are suppressed. Those suppressed values are missing from the published regional breakdown, not zero. The national total remains 70. (Statistics Canada, Table 11)
Later Statistics Canada releases provide national operating revenue indicators for sound recording studios. Revenue was $146.2 million in 2021, up 1.4% from 2019. In 2023, operating revenue was $169.0 million, up 10.2% from 2021. These releases describe studio revenue for those years; they do not provide comparable regional establishment counts. The 2021 and 2023 revenue figures should not be recast as establishment totals or as a detailed service breakdown. (Statistics Canada, 2021 release; Statistics Canada, 2023 release)
Sources
- Summary statistics for the sound recording studio industry, by province and region, 2005 to 2007
- Summary statistics for the sound recording studio industry, by province and region 2006 to 2008
- Summary statistics for the sound recording studio industry, by province and region 2009 to 2011
- Profile of the sound recording studio industry, by province and region, 2009 and 2011
- Sound recording and music publishing, 2021
- Sound recording and music publishing, 2023