By Jeff Price
There are a multitude of reasons to love Canada, but there are eleven
in particular that musicians should take note of, and they all come
from the Canadian performing rights organization, (PRO) SOCAN.
Although not perfect, SOCAN is a shining example of how a performing
rights organization should work for songwriters. The rest of the world
should sit up, take notice and follow its lead.
1) SOCAN, like most PROs, is a not for profit entity that is
owned by its publisher and writer members. And this is more or less
where most of the similarities stop with other PROs.
The 18 members of its Board of Directors are determined by open
elections. This does not mean that board members are voting to appoint
other board members, or people are volunteering to be on the board. Any
member of SOCAN in good standing can run to win one of the 18 spots on
the Board.
Although other PROs have similar models, I’ve never seen a PRO have
such an open process that did not substantially stack the deck in favor
of pre-existing board members.
2) SOCAN does not take any deductions on international incoming revenue.
If you are a member of SOCAN, and your song is publicly performed
outside of Canada (lets say Germany), the German PRO (called GEMA) will
collect the public performance money. GEMA will then take a % of this
money as its “admin fee” and then pass it back to SOCAN. SOCAN then pays
it to its member.
Now here’s the amazing part: whereas every other PRO in the world
(like ASCAP, BMI, PRS, GEMA, etc,) takes an additional second admin dip
of about 3% – 6% of the songwriter’s foreign money that, SOCAN takes NO
additional SECOND fee to get this money back to its members (the only
other PRO I could find that does this is STIM, the Swedish PRO).
There is no law or requirement for SOCAN to do this, they just choose to.
This means as a SOCAN member, you will make more money off of foreign
public performances than just about any other songwriter affiliated
with their local PRO.
3) SOCAN takes no percentage of the songwriter’s money as a “cultural deduction.”
A “cultural deduction” usually happens with European PROs. This is a
discretionary deduction taken from a songwriter’s money by the local
PRO to use for “cultural purposes.” And yes, the definition of
“cultural purpose” is about as vague as you think it is: parties,
supporting local bands, promoting bands, or other things that may fall
into shady categories. The amount they choose to take, and what they
choose to spend it on, is determined by their Board of Directors.
Songwriter members get no say, their money is just taken.
SOCAN (along with ASCAP/BMI/SESAC) takes no cultural deductions of any sort.
Kind of a no brainer to me.
4) SOCAN provides royalty calculators to help its members estimate and understand the royalties they will earn.
I can find no other PRO in the world that does this. SOCAN members
can plug some info into an on-line calculator and it spits out how much
money they should expect to be paid. For example, enter how long your
music appears on a TV show/station and if it’s theme music, background
music, etc, and the rate calculator will estimate the royalties
generated.
Members can use this info not only to know how much they should
expect to be paid, but also to do deals. For example, a member could
choose to lower or raise the synch license as they see the income via
public performance.
Not to mention when the songwriter’s statement shows up they can
compare what they were paid with what they told they were going to be
paid.
This is a huge level of transparency that no other PRO provides.
5) SOCAN also provides more transparency in its royalty statements.
On SOCAN’s on-line royalty statements, SOCAN members can see a deep
level of itemized detail. For example, they see a line listing of each
and every individual TV public performance, and the amount each one of
those performances generates.
In addition, the rates posted on SOCAN’s website appear to be the
actual rates they charge the TV stations, retail stores, radio stations,
internet services, etc. There do not seem to be two sets of royalty
rates—the ones posted on-line and the “real” ones that no one knows.
There is even a license fee calculator to help music users estimate license fees.
You can view SOCAN’s rates here.
6) SOCAN’s unidentified performances are posted online.
About 2% of what is reported to SOCAN for radio play is not
indentified. This means that SOCAN cannot match the information to one
of their members—they do not know to whom to credit it.
Unlike just about every other PRO in the world, SOCAN posts a list on
its website asking for its members to identify whose public
performances they are. Once that gets figured out, the songwriter gets
paid.
7) SOCAN posts a “Missing in Action” list for the members
they cannot find due to a change of address, death or some other issue.
You can view the current MIA list here.
May as well check to see if you’re on it. If so, there’s money waiting for you.
8 ) SOCAN has no “black box.”
Black box money is money that a PRO has but does not know who the
songwriters are that it belongs to, or where they are. Therefore, the
PRO gives this “unidentified” money away to other people or entities.
SOCAN does not do this. The entire distribution pool is distributed
each quarter with no money being held back to be given away later to the
wrong people or entities.
God bless ‘em!
9) SOCAN has a creative suite of member benefits including
houses in Los Angeles and Nashville donated by other SOCAN members.
These are bedrooms in homes that are available for members at no cost to
the member for up to two week stays (first come first served, and it
must be booked in advance).
‘Nuff said.
10) SOCAN has online tools allowing its members to make and track queries.
For example, a SOCAN member learns his/her song is on TV in Greece
and asks SOCAN to check it out for him/her. The SOCAN member can track
the progress of the query on-line.
In addition, SOCAN is actively pursuing ways to monitor international
public performances on broadcast TV on behalf of its members.
This allows SOCAN to reach out to other PROs on behalf of its members to assure they are getting paid the right amount of money.
11) SOCAN made a freaking cool mobile app.
I’m just going to copy and paste from their website:
SOCAN has launched its new mobile app for iPhone, iPad, and
Android devices, offering its members and licensees 24/7 access to a
wide array of functionality wherever they are. SOCAN members can now
browse their catalogues, calculate their performance royalties and
review their statements on the go. Whether in the studio, in a hotel
room, or traveling to a gig, members can access their SOCAN account
anytime, anywhere.
SOCAN licensees can also use a unique “licence finder” tool to
determine which ones apply to their situation, and easily calculate
their licence fees.
SOCAN’s app will soon be available for Blackberry and Windows
smart phones. As members’ and licensees’ use of its mobile app
increases, SOCAN will adjust it according to their input, improving its
features and capabilities wherever possible.
The end result is a PRO that is providing a higher level of
transparency, accuracy and openness resulting in more money going into
songwriters’ pockets and an understanding as to how much money these
songwriters should expect.
These seem like such obvious basic things, and yet, in the world of
PROs and the collection of songwriter money, they are unique concepts.
The question is why…
