CHANGES
SOCAN’s 2018 Revenues
Hit New High
SOCAN has released its preliminary year-end results for 2018,
which indicate that it again brought in and paid out record roy-
alties to its member songwriters, composers, and publishers. Its
combined domestic and international collections in 2018 topped
2017 figures by at least 11 per cent.
SOCAN’s total 2018 revenues were at least $374 million, of which it
paid out $315 million to members, an increase from $295 million in 2017.
Domestic revenues were up eight per cent to $282 million. Royalties from non-
Canadian sources are the number one revenue stream for SOCAN members and have grown 70 per cent in five years. While royalties collected
increased, SOCAN’s operating expenses remained constant year-over-year.
Despite the continued increase of digital royalties from online businesses that use music, SOCAN again called for a more equitable share
for songwriters and publishers. SOCAN revenue from internet-based licensed music in 2018 will total approximately $62 million, an increase
of 27 per cent from approximately $49 million collected in 2017.
“While overall revenues from digitally-delivered performances of music continue to climb, music creators and publishers on average are
yet to see earnings commensurate with the value that their work brings to these online corporations,” says SOCAN CEO Eric Baptiste. “To put
it in perspective, the average SOCAN member who earned royalties in 2018 realized only $54 from domestic digital sources in the entire year.
This has to improve and SOCAN is working tirelessly to ensure our members actually receive what they have fairly and deservedly earned
from their extraordinary work.”
For more information, go to www.socan.com.
Roots Music
Industry
Convenes
in Montreal
for Folk
Alliance
International
2019
The global roots music
industry took over the
Fairmont Queen Eliza-
beth hotel in Montreal
THE MCGARRIGLE FAMILY AT FAI 2019
for the Folk Alliance
International Conference
from Feb. 13-17, 2019. It was the first time the event had been held in Canada since 2013.
Canadian Musician was heavily involved this year, including sponsoring the official show-
case in the Joni Mitchell Room on Feb. 14, which featured The Good Lovelies, Jane and Anna
McGarrigle, The Revelers, and more. As well, Canadian Musician Senior Editor Michael Raine
moderated the sync licensing panel and took part in the speed meetings sessions.
Other panels at the conference covered a wide range of artist-centric topics, including
marketing and album release strategies, songwriting tricks, health and wellness, and more.
As part of the conference, two “global summits” were held. The Ethnomusicology Sum-
mit, facilitated by the Society for Ethnomusicology and Smithsonian Folkways Recordings,
examined the idea of “world music.” The other summit was the International Indigenous
Music Summit, hosted by ShoShona Kish. A first-of-its-kind summit, the one-day event
gathered Indigenous artists, knowledge keepers, and community builders, as well as invit-
ed allies, to discuss the most important issues facing the Indigenous music community.
For more information, go to www.folkconference.org.
12 CANADIAN MUSICIAN
CMRRA Launches
Unclaimed Works Portal
The Canadian Musical Reproduction Rights
Agency (CMRRA) has launched a new service
called the Unclaimed Works Portal that gives
music publishers and songwriters the ability
to search for unmatched uses of their reper-
toire so they can get paid for that work.
“One of the biggest challenges publish-
ers and songwriters face is knowing how
their work has been used,” says Veronica
Syrtash, CMRRA SVP – Business Affairs and
Corporate Development. “This new CMRRA
Direct service provides unprecedented
visibility into music use data so that these
creators can get paid. The service fulfills the
company’s broader mission of making the
business side of music easier for creators.”
The portal includes sound recording
data from multiple services aggregated
by the International Standard Recording
Code (ISRC). As well, there is a searchable
database through a number of data points
allowing publishers to match individual
tracks to musical works and, if necessary,
submit missing copyright ownership claims
on those works.
For more information, go to
www.cmrra.ca.