Contemporary composers learned how to better navigate the digital landscape, and had many questions answered, as SOCAN partnered with The Canadian League of Composers (CLC) and the Canadian Music Centre (CMC) to present a free online town hall presentation and meeting, “Classical and Art Music in the Digital Landscape,” on Feb. 9, 2022, from 3:00 to 5:00 p.m. ET
The town hall focused on notated and contemporary music in the digital landscape, addressing the concerns of Canadian composers pursuing compensation for their music when it’s distributed online. It included useful information about synch licenses, mechanical rights, copyright, streaming, and more, supporting self-advocacy and equitable approaches to presenting music online.
SOCAN’s James Leacock, Director, Domestic Royalty Collections, offered a presentation explaining “Licensing for New Classical Music Composers,” while SOCAN Membership Operations Administrator Karen Richards walked through the registration of a composition in the member portal of the new socan.com website.
Leacock explained how SOCAN licenses the music used in digital streaming, online screen productions, user-generated content, videogames, music learning, VR, and the metaverse. He discussed how royalties work for ticketed online concerts, including those on social, media platforms, and why the rate to charge for a synchronization will vary with the budget of the music user, the length of time of the music use, the reach of their platform, and other variables.
Leacock; Richards; SOCAN Creative Executive Racquel Villagante; and SOCAN’s Gary Laranja, Manager, Member Services, answered many questions throughout and after these presentations. Among them:
- How SOCAN is working to license NFTs by applying a model we’re familiar with;
- the difference in licensing fees, for presenters, between on-demand streaming versus a live online concert;
- the timing limits for submitting a notice of live performance to SOCAN;
- how to inform SOCAN about the use or reach of a YouTube video, so we can follow up on subsequent royalty distributions;
- how SOCAN is able to handle synchronization rights on a non-exclusive basis, based on direction from our member;
- how, If a member embeds a YouTube video on their website, it’s still licensed through YouTube; and
- how, in a musical theatre production, it’s a good idea to register each song separately.
Also attending and overseeing the event were the Canadian Music Centre’s Matthew Fava, Director, Ontario Region, and Bekah Simms, General Manager of the Canadian League of Composers.
At the close of the event, SOCAN’s Vanessa Thomas, Vice-President, Member and Industry Relations, emphasized that this was only the first of many such gatherings to come, and encouraged our member participants to contact SOCAN with any further questions, via our information centre, at 1-866-307-6226, or at members@socan.com.