On April 21, 2026, SOCAN spoke to the Canadian Senate Standing Committee on Transport and Communications about the opportunities and limitations that generative AI poses for Canadian songwriters, composers and music publishers. Julia Werneburg, SOCAN’s legal counsel, presented our position to the Committee, and answered questions from Senators alongside other invited witnesses.
“We believe a successful AI approach will value and compensate human authorship, respect the policy objectives of the Copyright Act, and lead to a vibrant licensing market where the benefits of AI are shared fairly,” said Werneburg. “But that requires legal certainty.”
SOCAN said that, while generative AI may be useful as a tool to assist and support Canadian songwriters and composers, that AI companies are electing not to license or pay for music is a significant issue. SOCAN also noted that we support a strong stance against a text and data mining (TDM) exception, meaning AI companies need to license and be permitted to use copyrighted works with authorization and provide renumeration to music creators.
Additionally, SOCAN explained to the committee why transparency is paramount to the AI conversation for licensing discussions and for songwriters, composers and music publishers to know when and where their works are being used. There is currently no mandatory transparency requirement, making it challenging to prove when a copyright-protected work has been used by an AI system. Transparency obligations on AI companies would help fix this information imbalance to facilitate a healthy licensing market.
“SOCAN has been licensing new technologies for more than 100 years. This is what we do. There is an opportunity before us to create a fair and just AI ecosystem that values human creativity. We need strong copyright laws – and strong policy leadership – to make that opportunity a reality,” said Werneburg.
To understand more of SOCAN’s position on AI, and advocacy for its members, visit SOCAN Academy.