SOCAN TOPS 120,000 MEMBERS

Toronto – SOCAN – the Society of Composers, Authors and Music Publishers of Canada – has surpassed the 120,000-member mark, further evidence that the business of songwriting, composing and music publishing is thriving in Canada.

“Surpassing the 120,000-member milestone is a celebration of the extraordinary musical talent that Canada deserves to boast,” said Eric Baptiste, CEO of SOCAN. “In the past two years especially, the number of SOCAN members has spiked, indicating that more Canadians than ever are embracing songwriting, composing and music publishing as a career, and a successful career in music-creation starts with joining SOCAN.”

SOCAN ensures that its members are fairly compensated when their copyrighted music is performed in public, by businesses, in concerts, in film and television, on the radio and on the Internet. The royalties that SOCAN identifies, collects and distributes to its members are an increasingly more important source of income for Canadian songwriters and composers.

The steadily increasing number of SOCAN members is good news not only for Canadian music fans, but for those around the world who have come to love the outstanding music that SOCAN members create. Royalties from international performances of SOCAN-member music increased from $39-million in 2007 to $47-million in 2012, and are expected to achieve more than $50-million in 2013 – the largest amount ever. Total royalties distributed by SOCAN to members in 2012 were nearly $220-million.

“As a Canadian, a career in writing music is highly unlikely – if not impossible – without SOCAN finding the royalties that you have earned and deserve,” said Stephan Moccio, Canadian pianist, composer, producer, arranger, conductor, recording artist and one of the co-writers of “Wrecking Ball,” Miley Cyrus’ hit single. “Making music is my passion, but it’s also my career, so my first advice to all songwriters and composers is this: Join SOCAN.”

Ontario, Quebec and British Columbia are the provinces with the largest number of SOCAN songwriters, composers and publishers, at 39-, 25- and 16-percent, respectively, of overall membership, and concentration of SOCAN members roughly reflects overall population percentages.

See graphic following for the provincial breakdown of where SOCAN’s 120,000+ member songwriters, composers and publishers reside.

Provincial Breakdown of SOCAN’s 120,000 members

About SOCAN
SOCAN is a member-based organization that represents the Canadian performing rights of more than three-million Canadian and international music creators and publishers. SOCAN is proud to play a leading role in supporting the long-term success of its more than 120,000 Canadian members, and the Canadian music industry overall. SOCAN licenses more than 125,000 businesses in Canada, and distributes royalties to its members and music rights organizations around the world. SOCAN also distributes royalties to its members for the use of their music internationally in collaboration with its peer societies. www.socan.ca

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Media Contact:
Michael Critchley
SOCAN, Communications & Marketing
416-445-8700 ext. 3784
critchleym@socan.ca