Photo by Kenneth Eke. Left to right / De gauche à droite : Mike Tanner, Music Sector Development Officer, City of Toronto / responsable du développement du secteur de la musique, Ville de Toronto; web developers / les développeurs web Natalja Chestopalova and/et Rudolf Olah; and Vanessa Thomas, SOCAN Vice President, Member & Industry Relations / vice-présidente des relations avec les membres et l’industrie de la SOCAN.

Natalja Chestopalova, Rudolf Olah win $3,000 first prize at 2022 Cue-Sheet-Palooza

Story by Howard Druckman, with files from / avec la collaboration de Luann Williams | Thursday April 14th, 2022

Natalja Chestopalova and Rudolf Olah have won the $3,000 first prize at the 2022 Cue-Sheet-Palooza event, held at a marathon 24-hour in-person session on April 9-10, 2022, in Toronto. The duo developed a CueConnect prototype that will help streamline the cue sheet process by which SOCAN members receive their royalties for on-screen music.

Cue sheets are lengthy documents that identify all of the music and its stakeholders in a particular screen production, in order to accurately distribute royalties; the process of using them has proven tedious and outdated. The Cue-Sheet-Palooza Hackathon, hosted by The Screen Composers Guild of Canada (SCGC) and SOCAN, offered an opportunity for teams of developers to explore ways music creators and stakeholders can get paid their screen-based performance rights royalties faster and more precisely.  Our goal was to free up a music creator’s time to make music, not spend hours on administrative work in order to get paid.

Chestopalova, a Senior Researcher and Project Manager at OCAD University, and Olah, a Senior Software Developer and Tech Lead, developed the CueConnect prototype, which uses Dolby.io API  (application program interfaces) and SOCAN cue sheet submission API to improve critical functions related to data accuracy and process automation, addressing process redundancies, unnecessary repetition and manual re-entry of data, lack of transparency, and more. Essentially, they developed a user-friendly starting point for simplifying existing cue sheet processes.

Their suggestions for further developments include improving the machine learning capabilities of CueConnect; improving data/knowledge networks by making cue sheet data available through public APIs; adding timely notifications for users and stakeholders when cue sheets are submitted; and exploring blockchain compatibility, in terms of novel approaches to payment streamlining.

The winner of the $2,000 Second Prize was Cue Underflow, a.k.a.Gideon Moyo, while the Third Prize of $1,000 went to the Awesome Team, comprised of Dillan Hoyos and Leandro.

Partnering with the SCGC and SOCAN on the hackathon were the Canada Council for the Arts, the SOCAN Foundation, Music Publishers Canada (MPC), the City of Toronto, and Dolby.io.

Apply now for inaugural $10,000 Henry Armstrong Award

Story by Howard Druckman | Tuesday April 19th, 2022

Indigenous music creators in Canada are invited to apply now for the inaugural Henry Armstrong Award, designed to support First Nations, Métis, and Inuit musicians. The deadline is May 13, 2022, and those interested can find the eligibility rules here, and apply here.

The newly launched bursary is named for MDM Recordings Inc. president and founder Mike Denney’s grandfather Lloyd Henry and mother Gloria Denney (née Armstrong), both fellow Six Nations Lower Mohawk. The genesis for the Award began in the Spring of 2021, following the initial uncovering of the 215 Indigenous children in the Kamloops Residential School mass grave. Knowing he wanted to help, Denney called upon his fellow industry representatives and quickly put together a committee united in the goal of promoting inclusivity, equity, and equality in the Canadian Indigenous music space.

The Award is open to all Indigenous music artists across Canada. Following the application window, a juried selection process will begin via a committee of Canadian music industry professionals, culminating with the chosen act receiving a $10,000 bursary, along with a tailored mentorship program of professional development services.

Photo by Brad Ardley, of/de Erica Procunier, winner of Best Original Music, Non-Fiction for 2022 / gagnant du prix Meilleure musique originale, non-fiction, 2022

Ten SOCAN #ComposersWhoScore win in 2022 Canadian Screen Awards

Story by Howard Druckman | Tuesday April 12th, 2022

Ten SOCAN #ComposersWhoScore were honoured in musical categories of the 2022 Canadian Screen Awards, presented live and in-person this year, from April 4-8, as health measures to combat the spread of COVID-19 have abated. SOCAN congratulates all our winners on these great achievements!

The winners are:

TELEVISION

Best Original Music, Fiction
Robert Carli, Peter Chapman – Wynonna Earp – “Better Dig Two” episode
Published by Wynonna Earp Productions Inc.

Best Original Music, Animation
Amin Bhatia, Ari Posner, Chris Tait, Kris Kuzdak – Let’s Go Luna! – “The Way of the Gaucho” episode
Published by 9 Story Media Group Inc administered by Anthem Entertainment

Best Original Music, Non-Fiction
Erica Procunier – The COVID Cruise
Published by Brights Grove Music Publishing

FILM

Achievement in Music – Original Score
Jonathan Goldsmith – All My Puny Sorrows

Achievement in Music – Original Song
TiKA Simone, Casey Manierka-Quaile – “And Then We Don’t” from Learn to Swim

For a list of all the SOCAN #ComposersWhoScore nominees, click here. For complete lists of all of the Canadian Screen Awards nominees and winners, click here.

SOCAN celebrated our nominees and winners with a cocktail reception at the Melody Bar of the Gladstone Hotel in downtown Toronto, in the early evening of April 8, 2022.

Attending SOCAN-member nominees, winners, and other screen composers included Amin Bhatia, Asher Lenz, Darren Fung, Erica Procunier, Iva Delic, Meiro Stamm, Michelle Osis, Stephen Krecklo, Suad Bushnaq, Neil Parfitt, Robert Carli, and Tom Third. Also attending were music supervisor Michael Perlmutter and Tonya Dedrick of the Screen Composers Guild of Canada (SCGC).

SOCAN attendees included SOCAN Director, Creative, Cameron Kennedy; Director, Creative Operations & Programming, Kathryn Hamilton;  Creative Executive, Film/TV & Visual Media, Gagan Singh; Creative Programming & Partnerships Co-Ordinator Maria Escamilla; and Video Editor Brad Ardley.