primary focus for 2019, through the review
and by other means. We’re also committed
to improving the music ecosystem in a num-
ber of ways, working with industry partners
and all three levels of government to create
a more prosperous, more sustainable, safer,
and more inclusive music industry. ceive what they earn from their work.
www.socan.com.
CM: What are your ideal outcomes for some
of these initiatives, and how do you plan to
work towards them? MM: As music and screen media move to
streaming, there is a disconcerting trend of
substantially lower levels of consumption in
Canada of music created by Canadians on
these platforms compared to radio or TV. We
must ensure that Canada’s current success
– even its dominance - in globally popular
music is not only sustained, but justifiably
increased. The problem of “discoverability”
has emerged with the popularity of stream-
ing services. As with many new technolo-
gies that are quickly adopted, the potential
negatives take more time to be realized, but
once they are, it is essential to correct them
quickly. Canada’s musicians and music
creators know all too well about discover-
ability challenges, and SOCAN will continue
to work to alleviate the situation and help
course-correct streaming so that the growth
of streaming platforms only has positives for
Canadian creators.
GH: Our ideal outcome in addressing the
value gap in Canada is to create favourable
legislative, regulatory, institutional, and fund-
ing frameworks so that the entire Canadian
music industry can prosper. For example,
at the institutional level, we’re working to
enhance the effectiveness of the Copyright
Board of Canada. Legislatively, we’re working
to ensure the Copyright Act review yields real
and meaningful results, strengthening the
business climate for music creators.
Another powerful way we’re working to
address the value gap is by empowering
artists to become advocates and to share
their stories with political decision makers,
their peers, and music fans. We’ve also con-
vened a new advisory group with a strong
artist contingent to help guide our policies
and initiatives.
Ultimately, Music Canada is determined
to foster an environment in which music
businesses can thrive and artists can have
long and prosperous careers.
SOCAN
Michael
McCarty
Chief
Membership
& Business
Development
Officer
SOCAN admin-
isters licenses
for the public
performance
of music; matches those performances
to rights-holders; represents reproduction
rights for visual artists, music creators, and
publishers; and ensures that members re-
54 CANADIAN MUSICIAN
CM: What are some of the key issues or
trends currently facing your members or
the Canadian music industry as a whole
that you’ll be focusing on throughout 2019?
screen producers to work with Canadian
composers.
SOCAN will continue to foster the develop-
ment of new Canadian music by assisting
with the careers and business of music cre-
ators and music publishers. The domestic
and global success of Canadian music – art-
ists, songwriters, beat-makers, screen com-
posers, music publishers – not only must be
sustained, it must be accelerated.
Re:Sound
Arif Ahmad
VP, Legal
Affairs &
General
Counsel
Re:Sound is the
Canadian not-
for-profit music
licensing com-
pany dedicated
to obtaining fair compensation for artists
and labels for their performance rights. We
collect and distribute royalties to creators
through our member organizations and
directly. www.resound.ca.
CM: What are your ideal outcomes for some
of these initiatives, and how do you plan to
work towards them? CM: What are some of the key issues or
trends currently facing your members or
the Canadian music industry as a whole
that you’ll be focusing on throughout 2019?
MM: SOCAN will continue to engage gov-
ernment at multiple levels to consider how
Canadian music is made available and
discovered. This includes Canadian screen
productions on streaming platforms. Tough
questions must be asked and addressed:
Are playlists, recommendation engines, and
algorithms fair? Or are they biased towards
non-Canadian works and productions? Is
Canadian culture adequately supported?
Should the government work to ensure that
streaming platforms favour the discoverabil-
ity and availability of Canadian culture? The
ideal outcome would see the introduction of
legislation to ensure the continuation and
update of highly successful methods to pro-
mote visibility and awareness that guarantee
strong availability, as well as incentives for AA: Artists and record labels are not receiv-
ing fair compensation for their work because
of two exemptions under the current Copy-
right Act which unfairly deprive them of
millions of dollars in royalties each year.
First, commercial radio stations receive
an exemption from paying royalties to art-
ists and record labels on their first $1.25
million in revenues. This exemption is an
unnecessary subsidy for a highly profitable
commercial radio industry, discriminatory
against performers and makers of recorded
music, discriminatory against other music
users, and the only exemption of its kind in
the world.
Second, the definition of “sound record-
ing” deprives performers and makers from
receiving public performance royalties when