Live music venues offer music fans a space to enjoy unique, real-time musical performances – concert experiences only made possible by songwriters and composers who create the music that those musicians perform. When you become Licensed To Play with SOCAN, you have the freedom to engage all the live music your business needs to be successful, while ensuring that the artists you hire to perform are compensated for their work as songwriters as well. Your license to play music demonstrates to artists, songwriters, music fans and peer businesses that your venue is using music legally and ethically, while supporting Canadian music creators. The license fees that live venues pay to SOCAN for the public performance of live music are used to compensate SOCAN-member songwriters, composers and music publishers that make up SOCAN.
What is a performing right?
A performing right is the right to perform musical works in public or communicate them to the public by telecommunication. SOCAN members have assigned this right to SOCAN to administer (i.e., license and distribute royalties) and enforce on their behalf. Tariffs for performing rights are set by the Copyright Board of Canada.
Winner of the first-ever Screen Composer of the Year Award at the 2017 SOCAN Gala in Montréal, SOCAN member Michel Corriveau is an impressively artistic music creator. Corriveau creates sonic atmospheres using both sounds and instruments, juggling emotions, and combining tradition and high tech. Dozens of Québec productions have been graced with his compositions, including Bon Cop, Bad Cop (2007), Ésimésac (2013), Les Pays d’en haut (SRC), Mensonges (TVA) and Prémonitions (AddikTV), as well as the series from France, Versailles (Canal+). He’s also composed music for the feature film Anna, which was saluted at the Gala Québec Cinéma, the Prix Écrans canadiens, and rewarded at the Los Angeles Independent Film Festival Awards.