When it signed an agreement with Sacem in 2016, SOCAN became the first North American authors’ society to entrust a European collective management organization with a mandate to represent its songwriters, composers, screen composers, and music publishers in the European market. Sacem has announced the renewal of this agreement with SOCAN for the management of rights on internet services, and added that the deal would be extended to include the mechanical reproduction rights of SOCAN’s repertoire in Europe.

SOCAN and Sacem said their accord covers the management of performance rights on European internet services for the more than 160,000 SOCAN members. Since the beginning of their partnership, SOCAN has benefitted from Sacem’s expertise in online rights management and has had access to URights, the copyright management platform for online music that Sacem developed in partnership with IBM.

On the strength of their first agreement, SOCAN has renewed its confidence in Sacem to continue to manage the performance rights of its members. The new deal encompasses the addition of the mechanical reproduction rights that Sacem has handled since 2018, following SOCAN’s acquisition of SODRAC, the society for reproduction rights of authors, composers, and publishers in Canada.

SOCAN’s digital revenue has increased significantly since it entrusted Sacem with managing online rights of the works in its repertoire. The crisis the music industry has been experiencing has reinforced the growth of online music consumption and confirmed that it is, more than ever, a strategic and pivotal source of revenue for music creators and publishers. Sacem will continue to make every effort to optimize the collection of rights for the works in the Canadian repertoire that it represents, and to ensure, with the greatest transparency, the most accurate distribution possible.

Said Jean-Noël Tronc, Sacem CEO: “The renewal of this mandate with SOCAN is a great vote of confidence and confirms our ability to defend the interests of music creators and publishers in an increasingly digitized world. We’re honoured to continue this partnership, and to put our expertise and the power of our tools at the service of SOCAN members.”

Said Jennifer Brown, SOCAN’s Interim-CEO: “Canada’s music creators and publishers are hugely successful internationally, and Sacem is a vital link, including our Francophone members. We look forward to a continuing mutually beneficial relationship as we work together to fight for the rights and royalties of SOCAN’s more than 160,000 members.”