TORONTO (CelebrityAccess) — The Society of Composers, Authors and Music Publishers of Canada revealed that it recorded record-breaking royalty collections for 2017, continuing a seven-year trend, and surpassing the previous record set in 2016 by eight percent.
The record-breaking year for SOCAN was boosted by streaming, with the PRO recording 44 percent increase in revenue from Internet collections, which amounted to just under $49 million.
The year also saw a significant uptick in revenue from outside of Canada to the tune of 13 percent, or $76 million — an all-time high for the PRO and the primary revenue source for SOCAN’s members.
SOCAN reported that for 2017, $295 million in total was distributed to music creators and publishers.
“We are delighted to deliver to our members a record overall amount of royalties in 2017, but there is still much work to be done to ensure that Canada’s music creators and publishers receive what they rightfully have earned and deserve a larger piece of the pie for their extraordinary work,” said SOCAN CEO Eric Baptiste. “Today, SOCAN is accessing, creating and harnessing technology so that we can even more fully and completely identify, license, track, match and distribute more for our members. We continue to fight for the rights of our members to receive a fair portion from businesses that use music to help their bottom line.”
SOCAN also touted their increasing integration of technology, including collaborations with the company’s work with the University of Toronto’s Department of Computer Science & Innovation Lab.
At the annual general meeting, SOCAN Vice President of Information Technology Janice Scott led a special session with Adjunct Professor of Music Technology & Digital Media Catherine Moore. The technology leaders discussed the two organizations’ exclusive work together, including in artificial intelligence and machine learning with an eye towards matching music performances with rightsholders.
SOCAN also revealed that they had minted their 100,000 member in 2017 when songwriter Ariel Gold of Toronto signed with the PRO.
