2017 was a good year for Canadian collecting society Socan, which has reported record revenues and distributions to its membership. The society’s performing-rights revenues grew by 6.4% to more than $350m in 2017, with more than $300m distributed to songwriters, composers and publishers.
These figures included $49.3m of ‘internet audio streaming’ revenues up 46% year-on-year. However, the society accompanied these numbers with some other figures that aren’t quite so pleasant for its members to contemplate. The average annual streaming revenues distributed to a Socan member who earned royalties in 2017 was $38.72.
“We are restrained with our celebrations,” as CEO Eric Baptiste put it. “As a new area of growth, streamed music continues its rapid uptake, resulting in a 46 percent increase in revenues, but, if original music is to thrive or even survive in Canada, overall remuneration for digital music must be corrected to be commensurate with the contributions of music creators and publishers as well as its importance to music fans from coast to coast to coast.”
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