Rights Management

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SOCAN administers and protects the performing and reproduction rights of more than 160,000 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 Canadian Copyright Act gives creators and rights holders of artistic works, including paintings, drawings, sculptures, architectural works, engraving, photographs, the sole right to authorize their use, whether it be for their presentation at a public exhibition, for their reproduction on various analog or digital medias (cards, posters, books, derivative products, etc.), or for their public communication (websites, social medias, TV shows, films, etc.).

SOCAN administers all these copyrights on behalf of its visual arts and crafts members by issuing licenses for the use of their works.

To learn more visit our Reproduction Rights Services page.

Synchronization Right: Synchronization refers to process of incorporating a musical work into an audio-visual work (film, television program, music video, video game, commercial, etc.). A sync license is needed for audio-visual producers to reproduce a musical work (usually in a non-exclusive way) to include it in the final editing of their audio-visual production, to be exploited by a third party in a market, for a given territory and term. This license may, in some cases, also include the reproduction rights of the sound recording.

MAGIC!

In 2014, MAGIC!’s song “Rude” became a No. 1 hit in the U.S., and spent six weeks on top of the Billboard singles chart, selling more than three million in America, and spawning a video that has now earned more than 1.24 billion views on YouTube. The reggae-pop song went gold, platinum, or multi-platinum in Canada, the U.S., the U.K. and Australia. In 2015, the four SOCAN songwriters in MAGIC! opened for Maroon 5 on tour throughout North America and Europe, and the group won two JUNO Awards. That year, MAGIC! also earned the SOCAN International Achievement Award, and in 2016 they collaborated with Sean Paul on “Lay You Down Easy.”