Avoid tax season blunders: Ensure your SOCAN tax info is accurate before Dec 1st

Story by SOCAN | Thursday November 4th, 2021

Each year, SOCAN issues tax slips to its members, whether T5 (for Canadian residents), Relevé 3 (for Québec residents), or NR4 (for non-residents of Canada). The tax slips for 2021 will be issued to members, and remitted to the appropriate tax authorities, by Feb. 28, 2022.

It’s important that you let us know about any life changes that have taken place over the past year. Did you change your name, create a business, or decide to re-locate? Keep in mind it’s the member’s responsibility to ensure that their tax information is accurate and up-to-date In SOCAN’s database.

If you’re a SOCAN member, and there are changes in your life or company that affect your tax status, please contact member services to ensure that those changes are accurately reflected, going forward.

If a payment has been received in error, these amounts will be reported on your 2021 tax slip, unless the earnings in error are returned to SOCAN before Dec. 1, 2021. In this case, please contact Member Services, at members@socan.com, or 1-866-307-6226.

The Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) and Revenu Québec (RQ) maintain strict rules decreeing that tax slips cannot be re-issued, and as such, SOCAN is unable to re-issue them. Any changes that will impact your tax slip must be completed before Dec. 1, 2021, in order to have them accurately reflected in your 2021 SOCAN tax slips.

So please let us know if things have changed, to avoid any tax season blunders!

Photo by courtesy of / courtoisie de l’ADISQ. Left to right/De gauche à droite : Klô Pelgag, Charlotte Cardin

First ADISQ 2021 Gala: Four more Félix awards for Klô Pelgag, three for Charlotte Cardin

Story by Eric Parazelli | Thursday November 4th, 2021

Klô Pelgag was in a good position to win some Félix awards last night at the First Gala de l’ADISQ 2021 – after the seven honours she and her collaborators won at the online Industry Gala on Monday, Nov. 1. This time, she walked away with the trophies for Album of the Year – Alternative and Album of the Year – Critics’ Choice, both for Notre-Dame-des-Sept-Douleurs; Video of the Year for the single “Mélamine”; and International Collaboration of the Year for the song “Sorcières,” a duet with Pomme. She’s also nominated in three of the 12 main categories to be awarded during the televised gala, Nov. 7 on Radio-Canada.

Charlotte Cardin won her first three Félix awards ever, including the trophy for the Artist With the Most Success Outside Québec, presented by SOCAN. She also won Album of the Year – Anglophone for Phoenix, and the Félix for the Best Online Concert of the Year – Anglophone for her magnificent show, The Phoenix Experience. Another female artist distinguished herself as well: thanks to her album Acrophobie, Roxane Bruneau received the Félix for Album of the Year – Pop and Album of the Year – Popular Success, a category that combines physical album sales and streams on digital platforms.

Also of note, the Félix for the Album of the Year – Other Languages went to Marie Davidson & L’Œil Nu for Renegade Breakdown; the one for the Electronic Album went to CRi for Juvenile; the World Music honour went to Ramon Chicharron for Pescador de Sueños; for Folk, to Vincent Vallières for Toute beauté n’est pas perdue; for Jazz, to Jordan Officer for Jazz Vol. 1; for Traditional Music, to Bon Débarras for Repères; and for Rock to Les Cowboys Fringants for Les nuits de Repentigny.

Finally, a new category was inaugurated, Artist With the Most Success on the Web, and it comes as no surprise that SOCAN member Damien Robitaille triumphed, thanks to his omnipresence throughout the pandemic, with his daily song covers – which brought him unexpected worldwide fame.

A special place was also given to the new generation of artists throughout the gala, hosted by Pierre Lapointe for a third year. Among them were Antoine Corriveau, Ariane Roy, Comment Debord, Gab Bouchard, Laurence-Anne, Lumière, Ramon Chicharron, Robert Robert, Thierry Larose, as well as the all-female rap collective #Rapelles – with the moral and musical support of veterans Ariane Moffatt and Louis-Jean Cormier.

For a complete list of winners, visit the ADISQ website.

SOCAN mourns the loss of Ray Hutchinson, of the Beau-Marks

Story by Howard Druckman | Wednesday November 3rd, 2021

SOCAN is mourning the loss of Ray Hutchinson, lead guitarist of The Beau-Marks, one of Canada’s first successful rock ‘n’ roll bands, who passed away at the age 81 from complications due to chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, on Oct. 31, 2021.

The Beau-Marks were known as the first Canadian group to completely write and record their music in Canada. Their biggest hit single, “Clap Your Hands,” co-written by Hutchinson and released in 1960, sold more than 500,000 copies, and landed the band their first album. The song reached the Top 20 at radio stations in Canada, and No. 1 in Australia. In the U.S., it reached the Top 50 on the Billboard Hot 100 and the Cashbox chart – where it remained in the Top 100 for 14 weeks. “Clap Your Hands” was re-released in 1968 and became a hit a second time, attaining the Top 10 of RPM’s Canadian Content chart.

As a co-writer, Hutchinson earned a SOCAN Classic Award (recognizing songs that achieve more than 100,000 radio airplays) in 2011 for “Clap Your Hands,” and the song was inducted into The Canadian Songwriters Hall of Fame. The Beau-Marks were also inducted into the Rockabilly Hall of Fame.

With the release of other singles, like “Classmate,” “The Tender Years,” and “Dark is the Night,” The Beau-Marks earned appearances on Dick Clark’s American Bandstand national U.S. TV show, and at New York’s Peppermint Lounge and Carnegie Hall – where they shared billing with Sammy Davis Jr. The Beau-Marks were one of the first Canadian bands invited to appear on The Ed Sullivan Show, though they had to turn it down, reportedly because of a scheduling conflict.

The band was  originally formed in 1958 in Montréal as The Del-Tones, but because other bands were already using that name, changed it to The Beau-Marks – a humorous reference to Boeing’s Bomarc missile, purchased by the Canadian government in the late 1950s . The band released its debut album in 1960, and another two before the group broke up in 1963.

Hutchinson, who moved to Peterborough, then pursued a 25-year solo career as a lounge singer, and also joined Dave Nicholls & The Coins, who toured night clubs in Ontario and Québec. His music career came to an end in 1988 when he was struck by a car in Miami, which left him in a coma for several months, and required years to recuperate.

SOCAN extends its sincere condolences to Hutchinson’s family and friends.