Rights Management

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SOCAN administers and protects the performing and reproduction rights of more than 150,000 songwriters, music publishers, composers, and visual artists. We offer an integrated approach to rights management and compelling solutions for our rights holders’ reproduction and performing rights. Through reciprocal agreements with more than 100 copyright collectives in 214 countries, we collect and distribute royalties internationally for the use of copyrighted works, connecting millions of creators worldwide.

Performing Rights

The performing right is the right to perform a song or composition in public – such as in a live concert, background music, a radio or TV broadcast, a streaming playlist at a bar, or any other type of public performance. The performing right gives copyright owners of songs the sole right to perform, or authorize the performance in public, of their songs. SOCAN administers these performing rights on behalf of its members by collecting and distributing royalties when songs are publicly performed.

To have SOCAN manage your performing rights, sign up here.

Reproduction Rights

Music

The reproduction right gives rights holders’ of a song the sole right to authorize the reproduction of their work on various media, including CDs, records, and digital media. SOCAN administers these reproduction rights on behalf of the rights holders we represent by issuing licenses for the reproduction to such organizations as music labels and digital service providers.

Visual Arts and Crafts

The reproduction right gives rights holders' of an artistic work the sole right to authorize the reproduction of their work on various mediums, including paintings, drawings, sculptures, architectural works, engraving, photographs. SOCAN administers these reproduction rights on behalf of the rights' holder by issuing licenses for the reproduction of their members' works.

To learn more about reproduction rights, visit our Reproduction Rights Services page.

Sample: Sample (1) The random sample method of logging the communication and public performances of a musical work (for example, radio performance logs used by performing rights organizations like SOCAN). Sample (2) As in “sampling a record”. A creative appropriation of a section, piece or element of a copyrighted sound recording and the underlying musical composition. In most cases, the "sample" must be cleared with the copyright owners (typically, record label and music publisher), to avoid possible infringement claims.

Klô Pelgag

Ever since she burst onto the scene, SOCAN member Klô Pelgag has been like a breath of fresh air in the Francophone musical landscape. The singer-songwriter creates a universe populated by songs, baroque and absurd, that charm and surprise. Her finely-crafted music shines a spotlight on Pelgag’s instinctive desire to confront her own ways. Both her albums, L’Alchimie des monstres (2013) and L’Étoile thoracique (2016), were critically acclaimed, and have won many awards: the ADISQ, Prix Barbara, Révélation Radio-Canada, Prix Rapsat-Lelièvre, Prix Félix Leclerc de la chanson, and the 2017 SOCAN Songwriting Prize for her song “Les ferrofluides-fleurs,” which she co-wrote with Karl Gagnon.