The latest collecting society announcing growth in its annual collections is Canadian PRO Socan. It estimates that it collected C$405.5m (around US$305.1m) in 2019 – the first time its collections have exceeded $400m in its history. We say ‘estimates’ because the final figure won’t be published until Socan’s AGM in June. Assuming it’s confirmed, that would mean 8% growth year-on-year, with 2018 already having broken the society’s record for annual collections with $375m.
Socan also provided some more detail on where that $30m-plus of growth came from in 2019: around $23m from digital sources and another $7m from reproduction rights collections. It’s not all good news though: Socan noted that its members (or rather, the ones who earned any royalties in 2019) earned an average of just $67 from Canadian digital royalties last year.
“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 CEO Eric Baptiste. “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.”
Tools: platforms to help you reach new audiences
Tools: Kaiber
In the year or so since its launch, AI startup Kaiber has been making waves,…