Lower royalties, bad investments, significant delays in the delivery of pandemic aid… SOCAN, the only music copyright management company in the country, has experienced its share of problems in the past year. Exasperated, big names in the music industry, such as Vincent Vallières and Richard Séguin, believe that it is now time to think about the creation of a new strictly Quebec rights management company.
Since the early 1990s, SOCAN has been the only organization in Canada that collects royalties from rights holders on songs that are broadcast on the radio and in shows, in particular. Its mandate then consists of sharing the prize pool between songwriters and publishers.
Music publishers are those who have the task of promoting the catalog of their artists, for example by placing their songs in advertisements or films. Gathered at a general assembly on September 6, Quebec publishers unanimously adopted a resolution giving their association the mandate to launch an independent study to look into the possibility of creating a new Quebec rights management company.
In the following days, songwriters sent a letter to their association, the Professional Society of Authors and Composers of Quebec (SPACQ), asking it to join the study proposed by the publishers. Among the signatories, several well-known songwriters: Vincent Vallières, Richard Séguin, Louis-Jean Cormier, Ingrid St-Pierre, Martin Léon and even Stéphanie Boulay of the Boulay Sisters.
“We have been hearing for some time that there are some issues at SOCAN that are impacting the income songwriters earn from their work. You will not be surprised to know that we are concerned,” we can read in this letter, of which The duty got a copy.
However, neither SPACQ nor the Association of Musical Publishing Professionals (APEM) will move forward with the study on other possible options, other than SOCAN. Indeed, two weeks after the adoption of the publishers’ general resolution, SOCAN announced investments in its Montreal office, including the hiring of employees assigned to Quebec music, which satisfied the board of directors. of APEM.
“The APEM Board of Directors has decided not to take steps to carry out a study on alternatives to SOCAN, despite the resolution adopted to this effect at our last general assembly. This decision was actually taken following recent announcements made by SOCAN for the Montreal office and on future projects,” said APEM general director Jérôme Payette.
Member of the APEM, David Murphy was disappointed by the decline of his association. “I have difficulty explaining why our association is backing down from the project of carrying out a study which aims to document the options, and not to establish an action plan. By its decision, the APEM chooses to remain in the dark and deprives the industry of an enlightened view, in a context of monopoly where creators suffer negative financial consequences, due to SOCAN’s failings. , lamented this former president of APEM by email.
He recalls that APEM benefits from financial support from SOCAN. The APEM offices are also located in the same location as those of SOCAN in Montreal.
Succession of problems
David Murphy, who counts several well-known artists among his clients, was the instigator of the resolution passed on September 6. It is also he who is at the origin of a request for collective action filed in 2022 against SOCAN. This aims to compensate Quebec rights holders, who would have lost around 36% of their income between April 2020 and September 2021, when SOCAN changed the way it calculated radio royalties. SOCAN has since corrected the situation, but refuses to reimburse Quebec rights holders who lost money during this period.
Since then, other problems have come to light. Last year, The duty reported that SOCAN had lost $53 million in the development of Dataclef, a platform intended to improve copyright collection. Dataclef was designed to be sold abroad, but the service did not achieve the expected success, which prompted SOCAN to terminate the project.
Then, last August, we learned that SOCAN had still not paid all of the aid planned by Quebec for Quebec rights holders for the first year of the pandemic. These significant delays prevented the delivery of aid released for the second year of the health crisis.
The executive director of Quebec affairs at SOCAN, Alexandre Alonso, declined our interview request. By email, however, he was delighted that the APEM board of directors had decided not to move forward with the resolution voted unanimously by its members.