After a member has joined SOCAN and registered his or her
works, the next step in the partnership between SOCAN and
the member is the payment of royalties. SOCAN’s advanced
system and processes ensure timely and accurate collection
and payment of royalties for over 80,000 members in Canada,
and hundreds and thousands more creators and publishers
worldwide.
In order to pay these royalties correctly, SOCAN first has to
identify “who is playing what.” To do this, SOCAN constantly
monitors several areas of communication and performance:
Radio:
Begining with our August 2007 distribution, SOCAN started
using digital audio identification (DAI) technology through an
agreement with a leading supplier of radio performance data to
electronically monitor over 150 commercial radio stations on a
census basis. As well, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation
(CBC) continues to provide airplay logs of national and
regional programming on a census basis. This enables SOCAN
to log all detected performances from the said radio stations
for distribution.
Since it is not cost-effective to log every musical performance on
every radio station in Canada on a census basis, SOCAN will
continue to sample the rest of the commercial radio stations on
a quarterly basis to identify the use of our members’ works.
Additionally, non-commercial (campus and community) radio
stations and CBC local programming will be sampled.
Television:
SOCAN analyzes all music cue sheets received for programs
aired on local commercial stations (including CTV and Global
affiliates), cable stations, public stations (such as TV Ontario
and Télé-Québec) and the CBC, Radio-Canada, TVA, and
TQS networks.
These cue sheets provide detailed information on the
music used in all television shows. They are obtained from
Canadian and international producers and distributors,
international societies, members and, in some cases, the
broadcasters themselves.
Live performance:
Performance credits are determined by SOCAN’s distribution
rules for all eligible concert performances, but SOCAN must
receive a licence fee from the venue or promoter before a live
performance can be processed for distribution.
While promoters and other concert presenters regularly notify
SOCAN of performances, SOCAN relies to a great extent on
information supplied by its own members through printed
concert programs and completed Notification of Live Music
Performance forms (available online at www.socan.ca or at
any SOCAN Member Services office). Members have up to
one year after a performance to submit this information.
Where is the money?
Cinema:
Payments are made for music used in movies that are shown
in motion picture theatres. Performance credits are based
on data provided by a leading supplier of audio-visual
performance data.
As with television, SOCAN relies on music cue sheets from
producers to identify music use and distribute royalties
accordingly.
Pay Audio:
As with radio, it is not cost-effective to log every musical
performance on pay audio channels. Instead, SOCAN samples
programming information supplied by pay audio services,
such as Galaxie and Max Trax, on a quarterly basis.
International Performances:
Through reciprocal agreements with affiliated performing
rights organizations throughout the world, SOCAN distributes
royalties to those affiliated organizations for performances
of their members’ work in Canada. In turn, SOCAN receives
royalties from its affiliated organizations on behalf of
performances of SOCAN members’ works in other countries.
These incoming international royalties are included in
SOCAN’s International Distribution.
