September 1st, 2025

Disques Cinémusique's need to find a new digital distributor in 2025 has led to significant changes to the presence of our albums on major platforms.

To simplify the operation, we have kept only about half of our catalog of about 500 albums. The best-sellers were retained of course as well as some less popular albums that we believe are of particular interest.

Unfortunately, you will find only a small portion of our catalog (about 20%) on Apple Music and Amazon Music. This was already the case for Apple with our previous distributor, but Amazon's disaffection is a major disappointment. By shunning independent labels like ours, these two digital distribution giants are demonstrating that, contrary to their claims, they do not offer their subscribers the widest range of music.

Qobuz still offers almost all of our albums for streaming and download, while Deezer and Tidal offer around 90% of them for streaming. Please note that the albums available may vary from one platform to another.

Spotify also continues to offer most of our catalog but since 2024 this platform has required all its suppliers to have a minimum of one thousand streams per year for a track in order to receive payment. This policy favors the most popular stuff at the expense, once again, of labels that focus on a more specialized market. In addition, the Swedish leader now imposes financial penalties on labels whose tracks generate an abnormally high number of online plays according to their checks. This arbitrary measure has already affected us in an unjustified manner.

YouTube now offers almost all of our albums, but users must subscribe to their Premium service to obtain acceptable audio quality. Moreover this platform, which is primarily dedicated to videos, pays the lowest royalties in the entire music industry.

In conclusion, we invite our customers to follow us on Deezer, Tidal or Qobuz. For a subscription fee similar to their competitors, these three platforms offer the widest selection of music, across all labels, fairer payments to rights holders, and CD-quality listening thanks to the lossless FLAC format.

There is one last important change to announce, which affects all online music platforms. We must now comply with stricter enforcement of the rules regarding the use of music recordings produced in the United States. Despite being in principle protected for 95 years, we were able until recently to incorporate them into our editions dating back to 1964 and distribute them in the United States, relying on the fact that they are in the public domain in Canada. Yet American publishers no longer tolerate any exceptions.

This tightening of the rule appears to result from a new Republican administration that is more protective in all sectors of economic activity, including with its neighbor and long-time partner, Canada. We have therefore withdrawn from the United States territory all our albums containing one or more tracks recorded in that country - about half of our catalog. These are complete soundtracks of American movies or compilations dedicated to a famous actor-actress, a major director, or a film genre such as film-noir or science fiction from the 1940s and 1950s.

US residents can circumvent these restrictions by using a VPN application, which allows them to access musical content unavailable in their region. This practice is legal in most Western countries, including the United States.

Our website is now updated with the complete list of available albums. While the change of distributor has caused its share of problems, it does allow us to continue producing. After a hiatus of eight months, we present our first two albums dedicated to the most famous of all film composers from Hollywood's Golden Age:

Best MIKLÓS RÓZSA Movie Themes Vol. 1, 1939 - 1946
Best MIKLÓS RÓZSA Movie Themes Vol. 2, 1947 - 1951

Many thanks to soundtrack lovers all over the world who have supported us over the years.

Clément Fontaine, producer
DCM Canada
 

​