TORONTO — For the first time in its history, SOCAN’s total annual collections exceeded $400 million, with an estimated $405.5 million collected in fiscal year 2019 on behalf of its members. This is an 8% increase over SOCAN’s previous record of $375 million collected in fiscal year 2018.
SOCAN (the Society of Composers, Authors and Music Publishers of Canada) attributed most of the growth to an increase of approximately $23 million in collections from digital sources, as well as an additional $7 million from reproduction rights collections, following SOCAN’s 2018 acquisition of Montreal-based SODRAC (the Society for Reproduction Rights of Authors, Composers and Publishers in Canada).
However, while the $23-million increase in digital collections (totalling $86.1 million in 2019) represents 38% growth over the $62.5 million collected in 2018, SOCAN members who earned any royalties last year earned an average of only $67 from domestic digital royalties — which represents only a 24% increase ($13) over the 2018 average of $54, SOCAN noted in its news release.
“Royalties from television, radio, international and concerts remain strong, but most growth this year came from domestic digital sources and it is clear that more must be done to improve the SOCAN writer and publisher’s share from streaming royalties,” said SOCAN CEO Eric Baptiste, in the news release.
“The Canadian government has acknowledged that Canadian content rules and discoverability must be modernized for the digital age. If music creation — the lifeblood of Canada’s music industry — is not supported quickly through the development of updated rules, there could be dire economic and cultural consequences,” Baptiste added.
SOCAN’s revenue from international sources continued to show growth in 2019, reaching a new record of $88.5 million, demonstrating that Canadian music creators and publishers continue to outperform on a global level, the news release says. SOCAN also reported the number of members who earned royalties in 2019 increased by nearly 3,000.
The society’s final 2019 collection figures will be determined following the March 2020 meeting of SOCAN’s board of directors and will be released in concert with SOCAN’s annual general meeting in Montreal in June, the release says.
