TORONTO, ON (CelebrityAccess) – Two of Canada’s biggest music rights agencies agreed to consolidate this week.
The Society of Composers, Authors and Music Publishers of Canada (SOCAN) – i.e. the performance rights agency that collects money on behalf of more than 150,000 songwriters, composers and publishers – has acquired Montreal-based reproduction rights organization the Society for Reproduction Rights of Authors, Composers and Publishers in Canada (SODRAC) in a historic non-monetary deal.
The acquisition marks the first time in Canada, a single organization will be able to license, track and distribute all royalties for both music performing rights and mechanical rights.
“SOCAN is thrilled to complete a made-in-Canada solution for music rights holders in this country and worldwide,” said SOCAN CEO Eric Baptiste. “This transaction fits perfectly with SOCAN’s goal of leading the global transformation of music rights, and SOCAN’s past and ongoing commitment to create alliances within the Canadian music ecosystem. With the full integration of SODRAC’s assets and expansion into mechanical rights, the combination of public performance and reproduction rights increases efficiencies, leverages licensing relationships, and reduces operating costs, resulting in even more music royalties going to those who have earned them.”
“The integration of SODRAC into SOCAN is the result of many years of discussions and negotiations,” added Lise Aubut, Chair of SODRAC’s Board of Directors and co-founder of SODRAC in 1985. “Today, this concentration of energy and resources has become essential in a context where markets are globalized, copyright media is dematerialized, and the financial means necessary to defend rights in a digital world are prodigious. Music is borderless, and tracking musical works requires cutting-edge technology that provides services to a large number of music rights-holders and users.”
