Apply now for RBC Launchpad Music Entrepreneurship program

Story by Howard Druckman | Thursday January 27th, 2022

Young Canadian artists, music creators, and music entrepreneurs are invited to apply now for the RBC Launchpad Music Entrepreneurship program, which is dedicated to supporting and empowering them. The objective of the program is to strengthen participants through an educational and networking platform that equips them with the kind of entrepreneurial tools required to establish and accelerate a thriving music project or initiative.

The program will include:

  • A vibrant, collaborative community of fellow emerging creators, artists, music-makers, and industry professionals.
  • Up to 20 workshops topics such as grant writing, creative direction, marketing strategies, legal literacy, and more.
  • One-on-one mentorship with music industry leaders and professionals.
  • Coaching and assessment on your own personal projects.
  • Artscape Daniels Launchpad membership, and credits toward professional studio use.

To be eligible to apply for the RBC Launchpad Music Entrepreneurship program, applicants must be:

  • between the ages of 18 and 35.
  • an emerging and/or practicing artist, music creator, or entrepreneur.
  • based in Canada, as either a citizen, or legal resident.

The selection criteria are:

  • Leadership potential and entrepreneurial vision.
  • Resilience and growth.
  • Ability to collaborate.
  • Desire to participate in a cohort experience.

Through the program, participants will gain:

  • Increased capacity to achieve their financial and professional goals.
  • A community of seasoned practitioners and mentors for ongoing support.
  • Opportunities to collaborate with peers in music, and other creative sectors.
  • Meaningful projects structured for rapid learning and feedback.
  • A supportive environment to test ideas and assess revenue-generation strategies.
  • Access to a professional recording studio.
  • Industry connections.

To apply for the RBC Launchpad Music Entrepreneurship program, please click here to complete and submit application by the deadline of Friday, Feb. 4, 2022, at 11:59 p.m. ET.

Why are screen composer royalties lower in the streaming world?

Story by SOCAN | Thursday January 27th, 2022

Audiences shifting from cable and TV to streaming video on-demand has had a huge effect on Canadian screen composers, most significantly by lowering the royalties paid for each view of their work. If you’re one of SOCAN’s #ComposersWhoScore dealing with this new reality, and want to understand how and why it’s happening, check out our “explainer” video below.

Click on the image to watch the video

Click on the image to watch the video

SOCAN is making progress on this issue, along with efforts by our colleagues in the Screen Composers Guild of Canada (SCGC) and La Société professionnelle des auteurs et des compositeurs du Québec (SPACQ). We’re currently advocating  with the federal government to modify the Broadcasting Act so that it mandates Canadian Content quotas for streaming video-on-demand services, and the promotion and discoverability of it. We’re also pursuing the collection of streaming reproduction rights royalties from those services; copyright retention, and participation in publisher’s share of performing rights and reproduction rights, for screen composers; and incentivizing the use of Canadian screen composers in foreign productions which shoot in Canada.

SOCAN to present first-ever “Cookin’ Songs” at 2022 BreakOut West

Story by Howard Druckman | Tuesday January 25th, 2022

SOCAN will present its first-ever “Cookin’ Songs” event at the 2022 online edition of the BreakOut West conference. Based on our ever-popular “Cookin’ Beats” events at various music conferences, “Cookin’ Songs” will break down songs, revealing how great ones come about, how they’re iterated, and how they change between the writing room, the studio, and the airwaves. Attendees can discover how writing and collaborating with other writers, and writing for other projects, can help enrich their own songwriting. “Cookin’ Songs” will feature Houtan Hodania, Creative Executive, SOCAN; Ryan Worsley, producer/songwriter/mixer, echoplant sound; Stefanie Johnson, artist and songwriter of the band Mise en Scene; and Rebecka Svarare Digervall, of the band The Magnettes, from Sweden. It’s scheduled for Thursday, Feb 3, 2022, from 2:30 to 3:30 p.m. CST.

Houtan will also participate in an “Unraveling Rights & Royalties” panel on Friday, Feb. 4, 2022, from 4:00 to 5:15 p.m. CST, presented by The Canadian Musical Reproduction Rights Agency (CMRRA). Navigating the multi-faceted Canadian music rights and royalties ecosystem critical to earning a living as an artist, and this collaborative workshop will engage attendees with each stream of royalties and its associated rights. In addition to Houtan, the panelists are Andrea Kessler, Manager, Musician Services, Musicians’ Rights Organization Canada (MROC); Andrew Karis, Interim Manager, ACTRA RACS; Catherine Jones, Vice President, CONNECT Music Licensing; Rebecca Webster, Director of Industry Relations & Communications, Canadian Musical Reproduction Rights Agency (CMRRA); and Stephen Carroll, Director, Music Programs, Manitoba Film & Music.

As well, SOCAN Foundation will present a pop-up installment of its Equity X Production Mentorship Program, which was developed in response to research conducted by the Annenberg Inclusion Initiative, which found that women made up only 2.1% of producers on the top 100 hundred Billboard songs from 2012 to 2018. That report also validated that female producers are under-represented 47 to 1 by male producers. Join the Foundation’s three days of production workshops for beginners, covering topics including workflow, MIDI, audio, mixing, and rendering. The workshops are slated for Thursday, Feb 3; Friday, Feb. 4; and Saturday, Feb. 5, 2022, from 11:00 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. CST each day.

For a full schedule of  BreakOut West events, click here; to register, click here. We hope to see you there!