Results of SOCAN 2025 Board of Directors election
SOCAN members gathered at the LUMI in Toronto to attend the organization’s Annual General Meeting (AGM), on May 21, 2025, and learn about its major achievements in 2024. The event was streamed live, in both English and French, for members unable to attend in person.
To kick things off, SOCAN Board of Directors President and Chair Marc Ouellette briefly interviewed Léo Boisvert of Mila, the Québec Artificial Intelligence Institute, who discussed LLMs (Large Language Models that excel at understanding and generating human language) and agents (software systems that use AI to interact with an online environment, perceive it, make decisions, and take actions to achieve specific goals).
Boisvert suggested that while AI might generate music based on previous patterns, it wouldn’t have the capability to create anything innovative or “new.” Ouellette stressed that AI doesn’t “create” music as an act, but that it “generates” and “predicts” content, and that the act of creation requires purpose, intent, and feeling, with a human being at the centre. Boisvert said that AI can help a music creator, but that it “can’t create music for you.” Ouellette said that SOCAN will continue to address our members’ AI concerns in its ongoing series of online Town Halls.
Ouellette later talked about how, in 2024, the SOCAN Board of Directors reviewed and updated our distribution rules; held oversight on many member events, including our awards ceremonies; changed the process of our Board elections; and continued to review SOCAN’s governance, including updates of the bylaws of our subsidiaries, SOCAN Foundation and the CSHF (Canadian Songwriters Hall of Fame).
SOCAN Chief Financial Officer Rob Bennett spoke of our record-setting financial results in 2024 – including total royalty collections of a record $559 million, a seven percent increase from 2023; a record $138 million in international revenue; $512 million distributed to music creators and publishers, a 17.5 percent increase from 2023; and an expense ratio of 12 percent, despite investments in technology and improved service to members. Bennett cited the global successes of our members, and the ongoing audience shift from traditional to digital broadcasting.
L-R: Margaret McGuffin, Jennifer Brown, Jennifer Mitchell
SOCAN CEO Jennifer Brown praised these results, but acknowledged that for many SOCAN members, royalties are low, and said that Francophone music creators have been hit hard by poor discoverability on DSPs (digital service providers). Brown suggested that these tech giants are trying to avoid requirements for such discoverability, and avoid government-mandated contributions to our members, and that SOCAN will continue to fight for such initiatives, and for the licensing of music used by generative AI. She also said that a SOCAN AI policy will be drafted in 2025, and that our partnership with Spanish Point Technologies to create a new matching engine will create more frequent royalty payments for members, and greater detail in their statements.
After the AGM, Margaret McGuffin, Executive Director of Music Publishers Canada (MPC), and MPC Board member Jennifer Mitchell, presented SOCAN with an award for 100 years of championing the rights of music creators and publishers: a customized canoe paddle, hand-painted by SOCAN member Tom Wilson. Brown accepted the honour on behalf of our organization, saying “I’ve always wanted a Tom Wilson paddle… Music Publishers Canada is one of our greatest partners as we move through uncharted waters.”
SOCAN Foundation Executive Director Charlie Wall-Andrews reported that in 2024, the Foundation fostered the creation of 839 new musical works, and engaged three million audience members. She cited such new programs as the Indigenous Music Residency and the Screen Music Lab for Videogames, and introduced a video of the Foundation’s 2023 Indigenous Songwriter Award winner Logan Staats acknowledging its positive effect on his career.
Canadian Songwriters Hall of Fame Board of Directors Chair Stan Meissner discussed its 2024 gala induction ceremony at Massey Hall in Toronto, which received a cumulative total of more than one billion media impressions; its new Breakthrough Awards; and its second Song & Score Week.
SOCAN Chief Membership Officer Jean-Christian Céré discussed activities ands initiatives in 2024, including 1,430 new members from Québec, and 6,000 in total; more than 800 one-to-one connections made by members and our representatives; increased communication and feedback between members and the organization; and more than 30 song camps. He mentioned that SOCAN has engaged a new ombudsperson, Mireille Tabib; welcomed a new Director, Film & TV, Mike Rocha; and worked to foster trust, inclusivity, and community for our members.
A lively question-and-answer session followed, with members expressing concerns about being able to foster new co-writing connections; ensuring royalty payments for their music being “scraped for training” by AI; providing feedback to SOCAN in creating its AI policy; increasing transparency with new operational indicators; and influencing lawmakers to support better-paying DSPs.
At the post-AGM reception, attending members connected with both SOCAN staff and each other, over drinks and hors d’œuvres. For a more complete accounting of our finances in 2024, see our online Annual Report.