Maurice Ali
Joined: 14 Nov 2003 Posts: 7861 Location: Toronto, Ontario, Canada
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Posted: Wed Mar 16, 2011 6:04 pm Post subject: SOCAN Actually Does Payout Royalties! |
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SOCAN Actually Does Payout Royalties!
By Maurice Ali
Banner for Life And Times TV Show!
On Monday I and many others saw a news report concerning licencing for music at restaurants here in Toronto. At the end of the report was the quip as to whether any of that money is ever paid to the musician. For those who do not know how royalty rights work, in the music world, I can tell you that when music is created and published, the creators and publishers are entitled to money paid by anyone who uses thier music for monetary gain. The largest entitiy that collects these monies in Canada is called SOCAN (Society of Composers, Authors and Music Publishers in Canada). The precise way SOCAN operates if probably best described by SOCAN from it's own website:
"SOCAN (The Society of Composers, Authors and Music Publishers of Canada) is the Canadian copyright collective that administers the performing rights of more than 100,000 composer, author and music publisher members by licensing the use of their music in Canada. We collect licence fees on their behalf and distribute royalties to them."
We I decided to check on our own list of royalty requests. We had two outstanding from the television show we aired on July 26, 2009 called "The Life And Times Of Donald "Boots" Brasseur." One request was for myself because of the intro music and one was for Donald Brasseur for his music in the closing credits. From the looks of it we still had not been paid. I recall sending the cue sheets in, but it was back in 2009 and I'm not sure if it was all done, "I"s dotted and "T"s crossed, so I will give SOCAN a pass on this. They did me a favor when "they" mentioned that I was eligable for royalties if I applied for membership. Usually it takes about 6 months to become a member but I was told to aplply as soon as I got home and I did. At five to nine next morning I was emailed that I was accepted as a member, close to a record at about 10 minutes office time between closing and opening for business. Anyway that was a year and a half ago until I saw that news report a few days ago.
Here I am at SOCAN back in 2006 for royalties for our first show!
I decided to pay them a trip to SOCAN headquarters and saw one of their representatives. I presented all the documents pertinent to the show and was told they would get back to me the next day. Sure enough they did and the royalties are to be paid mid May. I can only report what happened so I have to conclude that SOCAN will be good on it's word an pay royalties on our production. So like the title says: SOCAN Actually Does Payout Royalties!
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