OTTAWA – The Copyright Board of Canada has set the royalty rates that commercial radio stations must pay to six collective societies for the use of copyrighted musical works and sound recordings for various periods spanning from 2011 to 2017.
The decision covers the Society of Composers, Authors and Music Publishers of Canada (SOCAN) from 2011-2013; Re:Sound Music Licensing Company (Re:Sound) from 2012-2014; the Canadian Musical Reproduction Rights Agency and the Society for Reproduction Rights of Authors, Composers and Publishers in Canada (jointly, CSI) from 2012-2013; the Connect Music Licensing Service Inc. and the Société de gestion collective des droits des producteurs de phonogrammes et de vidéogrammes du Québec (jointly, Connect/SOPROQ) from 2012-2017; and Artisti from 2012-2014.
The collective societies filed five separate tariffs dealing with one or more of those activities, and the Copyright Board consolidated their examination into a single hearing that took place in October 2013 in order to be able to set tariffs for all of those rights at the same time.
The decision leaves the rates for SOCAN and Re:Sound unchanged at 4.4 and 2.1%, respectively, of a radio station’s gross income above $1.25 million. The rate for CSI decreases from 1.24 to a base rate of 0.95%. The rates for Connect/SOPROQ and Artisti also decrease, from 1.19 and 0.023 to base rates of 0.94 and 0.02, respectively. Some rates could be further reduced, continues the decision.
Secretary general of the Copyright Board Gilles McDougall said that the Board estimates that, without the additional reduction, the royalties to be paid by all commercial stations in a year will total $93.5 million. Of that amount, $55.5 million will go to SOCAN, $18 million to Re:Sound, $10 million to CSI, $10 million to Connect/SOPROQ and $200,000 to Artisti.
“With total radio stations revenues slightly over $1.5 billion for 2013, the effective total royalty rate to be paid by radio stations is close to 6 per cent”, said McDougall, in a statement. “This corresponds to the proportion of their revenues that commercial radio stations will effectively be paying to all rights owners for their use of music.”
The certified tariff will be available here on the Board’s website by the end of the day on Friday, April 22.
