Cameron Kennedy joins SOCAN as Director, Creative

Story by SOCAN | Tuesday February 15th, 2022

Cameron Kennedy recently joined SOCAN as Director, Creative, a new role that focuses on driving member recruitment, retention, and repatriation for our reproduction and performing rights businesses. The position will help ensure that we continue to put the needs of our members and clients first.

“As the Creative team is constantly evolving with the changing needs of our members and clients, recruitment, retention, and repatriation are invaluable to ensure that our repertoire stays competitive,” says Vanessa Thomas, Vice President, Member & Industry Relations. “Cameron Kennedy comes to SOCAN at an exciting time, and I look forward to working with him.”

Kennedy is responsible for strengthening SOCAN’s repertoire by developing and implementing creative strategies to ensure our organization continues to be informed, and ahead, of various performing rights members and reproduction rights clients. He’ll work closely with the creative programing team to develop and execute membership events and partnerships. Kennedy will also lead and mentor the Creative team in Toronto, Montréal, Vancouver, and Los Angeles, as we work to develop new relationships, nurture existing ones, and provide information on our core member benefits to both emerging and established music creators.

An experienced and talented industry professional with more than 10 years of expertise in the music and entertainment world, Kennedy was most recently a partner of one twenty eight, a Toronto-based talent booking, cause marketing, and corporate social responsibility agency, developing and implementing strategies with such organizations such as the JUNO Awards, TikTok, and Kids Help Phone.

Photo by courtesy / courtoisie. Left to right / De gauche à droite : Michelle Osis, Erica Procunier, Amanda Cawley, Rose Bolton.

Twenty-eight SOCAN members earn Canadian Screen Awards 2022 nominations

Story by Howard Druckman, with files from / avec Daryl Hamilton | Wednesday February 16th, 2022

Once again this year, SOCAN #ComposersWhoScore have fared very well in nominations at the Canadian Screen Awards, in the musical categories. Twenty-eight of our members have earned nominations in various categories, and all nominees in the Best Original Music, Non-Fiction category are female composers. Rose Bolton, Robert Carli, Stephen Krecklo, and Peter Chapman are each nominated twice.

Presented by the Academy of Canadian Cinema & Television, the Canadian Screen Awards were born of the fusion of two awards ceremonies – the Genie Awards for movies and Gemini Awards for television. The 2022 awards will be presented over six days during Canadian Screen Week, April 4-10, 2022.

The SOCAN nominees are as follows:

FILM

Achievement in Music – Original Score

  • Jonathan Goldsmith – All My Puny Sorrows
  • Stephen Krecklo – Between Waves
  • Darren Fung – Cinema of Sleep
  • Suad Bushnaq – Jasmine Road
  • Spencer Creaghan — Motherly

 Achievement in Music – Original Song

  • Jean Martin, Tanya Tagaq – “Surface Nord,” from Bootlegger
  • David Braid – “Ring Them Fantasy,” from Delia’s Gone
    Published by Lumanity Productions Inc. / K52 Music
  • Nicolas Errèra, Craig Walker – “Drop the Rock,” from Au revoir le Bonheur/Goodbye Happiness
  • Tika Simone, Casey Manierka-Quaile – “And Then We Don’t,” from Learn to Swim
  • Simon Angell, Erika Angell (STIM) – “Lovers Are Falling,” from Woman in  Car

 TELEVISION

 Best Original Music, Fiction

  • Tom Third – Coroner – “Spirits” episode
    Published by 6800 Music, administered by MRD – Music Revenue Data
  • Todor Kobakov, Iva Delic, Tika Cato – Faith Heist
    Published by Kobakov Music Publishing, administered by MRD – Music Revenue Data
  • Robert Carli – Frankie Drake Mysteries – “Showstoppers” episode
    Published by Shaftesbury Music, administered by Sony
  • Robert Carli, Peter Chapman – Wynonna Earp – “Better Dig Two” episode
    Published by Wynonna Earp Productions Inc.
  • Gary Koftinoff, Phil Bennett – Hudson & Rex – “Under Pressure” episode
    Published by Shaftesbury Music, administered by Sony

Best Original Music, Non-Fiction

  • Amanda Cawley – Ageless Gardens – “Sacred Spaces” episode
    Published by 291 Film Company Ltd.
  • Rose Bolton – Born Bad
  • Rose Bolton – Coral Ghosts
    Published by Take Action Films Inc.
  • Erica Procunier– The COVID Cruise
    Published by Brights Grove Music Publishing
  • Michelle Osis – The Nature of Things – “Inside the Great Vaccine Race” episode
    Published by Passion Core Publishing Inc. / Infield Fly Production Inc.

Best Original Music, Animation

  • Peter Chapman – Happy House of Frightenstein – “Wolfie’s Last Howl” episode
  • Amin Bhatia, Ari Posner, Kris Kuzdak – Let’s Go Luna! – “The Way of the Gaucho” episode
    Published by 9 Story Media Group Inc., administered by Anthem Entertainment
  • Asher Lenz, Stephen Skratt – Pikwik Pack – “Suki’s Hero” episode
    Published by Guru Animation Studios, administered by Anthem Entertainment
  • Neil Parfitt – Ranger Rob – “Fossil Finders Keepers in Big Sky Park” episode
    Published by Future Cinesymphonies, administered by Anthem Entertainment
  • Meiro Stamm – Xavier Riddle and the Secret Museum – “I Am Ella Fitzgerald” episode
    Published by 9 Story Media Group Inc., administered by Anthem Entertainment

For further information and a complete list of nominees, visit the Canadian Screen Awards website. Congratulations to all our nominees on this great achievement!

SOCAN Town Hall allows composers to better navigate the digital landscape

Story by Howard Druckman | Thursday February 10th, 2022

SOCAN Composers Digital Town Hall Contemporary composers learned how to better navigate the digital landscape, and had many questions answered, as SOCAN partnered with The Canadian League of Composers (CLC) and the Canadian Music Centre (CMC) to present a free online town hall presentation and meeting, “Classical and Art Music in the Digital Landscape,” on Feb. 9, 2022, from 3:00 to 5:00 p.m. ET

The town hall focused on notated and contemporary music in the digital landscape, addressing the concerns of Canadian composers pursuing compensation for their music when it’s distributed online. It included useful information about synch licenses, mechanical rights, copyright, streaming, and more, supporting self-advocacy and equitable approaches to presenting music online.

SOCAN’s James Leacock, Director, Domestic Royalty Collections, offered a presentation explaining “Licensing for New Classical Music Composers,” while SOCAN Membership Operations Administrator Karen Richards walked through the registration of a composition in the member portal of the new socan.com website.

Leacock explained how SOCAN licenses the music used in digital streaming, online screen productions, user-generated content, videogames, music learning, VR, and the metaverse. He discussed how royalties work for ticketed online concerts, including those on social, media platforms, and why the rate to charge for a synchronization will vary with the budget of the music user, the length of time of the music use, the reach of their platform, and other  variables.

Leacock; Richards; SOCAN Creative Executive Racquel Villagante; and SOCAN’s Gary Laranja, Manager, Member Services, answered many questions throughout and after these presentations. Among them:

  • How SOCAN is working to license NFTs by applying a model we’re familiar with;
  • the difference in licensing fees, for presenters, between on-demand streaming versus a live online concert;
  • the timing limits for submitting a notice of live performance to SOCAN;
  • how to inform SOCAN about the use or reach of a YouTube video, so we can follow up on subsequent royalty distributions;
  • how SOCAN is able to handle synchronization rights on a non-exclusive basis, based on direction from our member;
  • how, If a member embeds a YouTube video on their website, it’s still licensed through YouTube; and
  • how, in a musical theatre production, it’s a good idea to register each song separately.

Also attending and overseeing the event were the Canadian Music Centre’s Matthew Fava, Director, Ontario Region, and Bekah Simms, General Manager of the Canadian League of Composers.

At the close of the event, SOCAN’s Vanessa Thomas, Vice-President, Member and Industry Relations, emphasized that this was only the first of many such gatherings to come, and encouraged our member participants to contact SOCAN with any further questions, via our information centre, at 1-866-307-6226, or at members@socan.com.