SOCAN held three meetings with our #ComposersWhoScore, and representatives of the Screen Composers Guild of Canada (SCGC), for the fourth straight year, to strengthen our relationship with that community. This time, we held three separate meetings, in Toronto, Montréal, and Vancouver, and surveyed our screen composer members in advance to determine the subjects they most wanted to address – which were international and internet royalties. At all of the meetings, there was a very healthy dialogue between SOCAN and our members, with lots of questions from the attendees.
The Toronto gathering was held June 2, 2018, as a panel at The Harris Institute in downtown Toronto, moderated by SOCAN’s Paul Stillo. SOCAN’s Connor Chapman explained how we take pro-active measures to collect international royalties for our members, including an increase in the number of personal visits to our affiliate performing rights organizations in recent years. SOCAN’s James Leacock discussed cable versus internet revenue, noting that a modest decline in cable has been limited to certain genres of programming/stations, while SOCAN has dramatically increased the number of services that it’s licensing in the past three years. SOCAN members Janal Bechthold and Greg Fisher explained the Screen Composers Guild of Canada model agreement and rate card, which help to guide music creators in doing business for movies and television.
In Montréal on June 6, 2018, SOCAN’s Karine Melchior updates our #ComposersWhoScore about royalties for music used in advertising. (Photo: Eric Parazelli)
The Montréal meeting, held June 6 at Centre Phi, was facilitated by SOCAN’s Geneviève Côté, except for a digital platforms panel led by SOCAN’s Eric Parazelli. After an update on royalties for music used in advertising, presented by SOCAN’s Karine Melchior (who also organized the entire event), Paul-Étienne Côté, composer and founder of the music agency Circonflex, spoke about his transition from composing film and TV scores to creating music for advertising. After some information offered by SOCAN’s James Leacock, Pauline Boisbouvier, Chief of Development and Production, Digital and Brand Content for Zone3, asked about scoring content specifically aimed at digital platforms. Screen composers Nathalie Bonin and François-Xavier Dupas discussed the stakes and challenges in the growing sector of scoring interactive and video games. Michel Corriveau, winner of last year’s SOCAN Screen Composer of the Year Awards at the Montréal gala, generously shared his experience and advice in negotiating screen music contracts. And Julien Boumard Coallier, of The SOCAN Foundation, explained the organization’s various programs for screen composers.
The Vancouver meeting was held June 9, at the Canadian Music Centre. SOCAN’s Sara Pavilionis and James Leacock presented information on international royalties, internet royalties, and the online tools SOCAN has to offer to screen composers. Other SOCAN personnel in attendance were Gary Laranja and Coralie Hummel, and SOCAN members at the event included Craig Northey, Hal Beckett, Peter Allen, Dave Ramos, Robin Hughes, and Daniel Ross. Many of the attending members said that they were leaving the meeting armed with new information, which was our goal.
SOCAN’s Sara Pavilionis and James Leacock present information on international and internet royalties to our #ComposersWhoScore in Vancouver, on June 9, 2018. (Photo: Gary Laranja)