Mental health of Canadian musicians not doing well, survey finds

More than half of Canada’s music professionals have at some point lost the will to live, with 43% saying they had suicidal thoughts, according to a survey.

More than half of Canada’s music professionals have at some point lost the will to live, with 43 per cent saying they have had suicidal thoughts, according to a new national study on mental health in the Canadian music industry.

The launch of the En coulisses (Soundcheck) study was announced in October 2024 by Le Fonds Unison, SOCAN and consulting firm Revelios. Its findings were released on Wednesday.

“What we found is that, very broadly, there is a mental health crisis in the Canadian music industry,” said Revelios president Catherine Harrison.

“And that’s true no matter the role you have, whether you’re an artist, part of a crew, an employee of a company, a freelancer, a publicist or something else, poor mental health is widespread.”

More than 1,250 music professionals had taken part in the study as of Oct. 31, 2025. The research included a national survey, focus groups and individual interviews conducted across Canada.

Ninety-four per cent of respondents said mental health problems are “very widespread” in the industry; 86 per cent said they had personally experienced such problems, and 95 per cent had seen others grapple with them.

Eighty-four per cent of participants said their work environment is not conducive to good mental health, and 95 per cent believe the industry could do more to address the issues.

Eighty-six per cent reported suffering from anxiety, 75 per cent from fatigue and 70 per cent from persistent sadness, all of which are indicators of endemic burnout.

“These figures point to profound distress within the workforce of the music sector,” Harrison said, adding she was “disappointed” by the low level of Quebec participation.

Financial stress appears to be a major factor, with 84 per cent of respondents saying it has a direct impact on their mental health.

“It is increasingly difficult to earn money, to find work, to create,” Harrison said. “Streaming has almost wiped out any revenue from song sales. It’s harder to put on concerts in Canada. Many small venues are closing. It’s harder to find work and earn a decent wage. I know many musicians who have been playing for decades and who earn the same salary they did in the ’80s.”

Faced with such financial precarity, she said, people working in the music industry often have no choice but to take one or two additional jobs, which almost inevitably harms their mental health.

There is also the growing impact of artificial intelligence, including “musical pieces” generated in seconds and uploaded to platforms such as Spotify.

“AI has really started to wreak havoc over the last 12 months,” Harrison said. “Think of all these people, not just writers and artists, but technicians, audio engineers and others, who made their living composing jingles, soundtracks, ads and selling their work for advertising. Today companies say, ‘Why would I do that? I can just ask a robot to do everything.’”

No one really knows where AI will take the industry in six months or a year, she added, “and all that ambiguity, all that confusion, is an additional source of stress.”

“So this is a very stressful period from a creative standpoint,” Harrison said. “And there is a real sense of hopelessness and a lack of autonomy and control over one’s own work.”

This report by The Canadian Press was first published in French on Feb. 25, 2026.