As a collective for the performing rights of our members - the creators and publishers of music - we make sure they get paid for the public performance and communication to the public of their music. We do that by collecting licence fees, as set by the Copyright Board of Canada, from anyone playing or broadcasting live or recorded music.

We also pay royalties to members of our affiliated international Performing Rights Organizations (PROs) for the public performances in Canada of their copyright-protected works. Similarly, we pay royalties to Canadian music creators and publishers when their music is performed in other countries, by virtue of reciprocal agreements with these PROs. Because of these agreements, our repertoire includes musical works written by their members as well as our own.

Copyright owners still have to protect their own copyright, but the advantage of joining SOCAN is that we collect licence fees from thousands of venues that play music, a task that would be difficult and time-consuming for copyright owners to do on their own.

We make the process simple and efficient for our licensees, too. We administer performing rights in a simple way so that everyone who authorizes, or wants to play or broadcast music - broadcasters, promoters, venue operators, and others - can obtain the right quickly and easily.

Find out more about copyright law.

• Board of Directors
• Executive Team