Music At Work In Your Business & SOCAN

The most immediate way to sense the value of music to your business is to imagine your business without it. And SOCAN customers, tens of thousands across Canada, consider music so integral to their business that it’s part of their brand – as important as décor. Here is a brief explanation of why you, as an owner or operator, require a performing rights licence when you use copyright-protected music in your facility. That’s where SOCAN comes in.

SOCAN stands for Society of Composers, Authors and Music Publishers of Canada. We ensure that music creators and their publishers get paid for the communication to the public and public performance of their music. SOCAN does this by granting performing rights licences to businesses and individuals publicly playing or broadcasting live or recorded music.

SOCAN will grant such a licence, allowing you access to virtually the world’s entire repertoire of copyright-protected music, when the applicable licence fees are paid. These fees are based on tariff rates set by the Copyright Board of Canada.

There are more than 21 different SOCAN tariffs to accommodate the many different uses of music. Some of the most common ones are:

Live Music – Tariff 3.A
The annual fee is 3% of the compensation for that live music. For example, if the annual value of what you’re paying for the live music is $100,000, your annual fee is $3,000. Minimum fee is $83.65 per year.

Motion Picture Theatres – Tariff 6
For any and all music played in movie theatres (as background AND in the films themselves), the fee is $1.23 per seat.

Rental Functions where either live or recorded music is used – Tariff 8
This tariff pertains to banquet facilities, meeting rooms, reception areas, etc. This is NOT an annual fee tariff, but rather is charged per event, and the fee is calculated based on the capacity of the room and whether or not dancing is part of the function.

Recorded Background Music (not for dancing) – Tariff 15.A
If you use recorded music in your dining area(s), bar(s), or lobby area, the annual fee is 11.46 cents per square foot of the public area (customer-used, not kitchen or storage).

Music on Hold over your telephone system – Tariff 15.B
The annual fee is $94.51 for your initial trunk line and $2.09 for each additional trunk line. A trunk line is a line that connects to the public/outside phone system.

For Tariffs 15.A and 15.B, if you contract with a music supplier that is licensed by SOCAN, the licence fee for that use is covered in what you pay for the service.

Recorded Music for Dancing – Tariff 18
If you have a disco or dance club, your annual fee is calculated according to a scale determined by the number of days per week and months per year that you have music for dancing as well as the capacity of the room.

Fitness Activities – Tariff 19
The annual fee is based on the average number of participants per week per room multiplied by $2.14.

Karaoke – Tariff 20
The annual fee is $191.24 for three days per week or less of karaoke, or $275.56 for four or more days per week, regardless of room size, capacity, etc.

For full details on these and other SOCAN tariffs, or to find out more about SOCAN, visit www.socan.ca or give us a call. For new customers, please call 1-866-944-6210 and for existing customer queries, please call 1-866-944-6223.