Submit now for SOCAN Publisher of the Year Award

Story by SOCAN | Friday January 11th, 2019

The 2019 edition of the SOCAN Awards in Toronto will salute the remarkable work of Anglophone music publishers with the third annual Publisher of the Year Award. Publishers are invited to submit their nominations starting today, until the deadline of Friday, Jan. 25, 2019.

To be eligible, a publisher must be based in Canada, and their repertoire must be in large part Anglophone, or having had a significant Anglophone impact, creatively and commercially. A publisher with a representative who sits on the selection committee is not eligible for this award.

The award recognizes a publisher member who contributed in a significant and positive manner to the music industry and creative community during the year prior to the year of the next SOCAN Awards.

The eligibility period for the 2019 edition of the SOCAN Awards is from January 1 to December 31, 2018, and only the accomplishments which occurred during this period will be taken into consideration. A jury of music industry professionals will evaluate all the nominations.

Eligible publishers must submit nominations to SOCAN’s Events Team, at events@socan.com, no later than Jan. 18, 2019, at 5:00 p.m., EDT. The Publisher of the Year Award will be presented during the SOCAN Awards in Toronto on Monday, April 1, 2019. Publishers can download the submission form here.

Photo by SOCAN files. Left to right/De gauche à droite : Emma-Lee, Tebey, Kelly Archer

Canadian Country Music Association, SOCAN announce 2019 song camp

Story by Howard Druckman | Friday January 11th, 2019

SOCAN is pleased and proud to announce that we’ve partnered with The Canadian Country Music Association (CCMA) to launch the inaugural CCMA Song Camp, scheduled for Jan. 27 to Feb. 2, 2019 in Gaspar Hernández, Dominican Republic. The week-long camp will bring together 16 established country music songwriters and producers, with the goal of creating a broad collection of radio-ready songs.

Sun, sand, and country music offers the perfect combination for a week in the Caribbean. Spending seven days off the grid at the CCMA Song Camp aims to provide participants the opportunity to break free from their day-to-day routines and distractions, offering them the freedom to channel their creative outlets, and granting them access to unique collaborative experiences they might not otherwise have.

“SOCAN has long believed in the creative and collaborative culture that song camps foster, and we’re thrilled to be working with the CCMA on their first Country Music Song Camp,” says SOCAN Directpor, A&R, Rodney Murphy. “Our collective passion to support the Canadian music community, and provide resources for songwriters to develop their craft, made this partnership a natural evolution.”

Each morning, the curated group of writers and producers will receive a briefing, and then assemble into assigned groups, each of which includes three or four writers and one producer. New groups will be assigned each day, and each group will spend the day (from 9:00 a.m. to 10:00 p.m., with breaks for meals) collaborating to develop new songs. Every evening will culminate with a late-night showcase, providing the groups a chance to share their favourite songs created in that day’s sessions.

The CCMA Song Camp boasts a roster of some of Canada’s top country talent. Those attending include:

SONGWRITERS
Kelly Archer
Patricia Conroy
Dan Davidson
Lindsay Ell
Andrew Hyatt
Emma-Lee
Meghan Patrick
MacKenzie Porter
Deric Ruttan
Ben Stennis (BMI)
Tebey

PRODUCERS
Blake Bollinger (ASCAP)
Jeff Johnson
Karen Kosowski
Colin Munroe
Dave “Dwave” Thomson

SOCAN looks forward to all of the inspired creativity, fresh songs, and new working relationships that we expect to develop at the CCMA Song Camp.

Discount registration for SOCAN members for DM@X Conference 2019

Story by Howard Druckman | Wednesday January 9th, 2019

SOCAN members will receive a major discount on regular registration rates ($99 instead of $399, CAD) to attend the fifth annual Digital Media at the Crossroads (DM@X) conference, to be held at the University of Toronto on Friday and Saturday, Jan. 25-26, 2019.

Taking a look at the future for Canadian creators of all kinds, DM@X is recommended to all students and professionals in digital media.

The program for the conference has been organized to be informative, wide-ranging and provocative. Following a review of revenues, employment and future trends in each sector of the digital media universe in Canada, individual panels will address the future of over-the-top video services, the impact of Google and Facebook News on print media, and changes in copyright policy. An expert from the European Union will provide an update on developments affecting local content creation in Europe.

And there will be a Town Hall meeting with members of the Broadcasting and Telecommunications Legislative Review Panel, which is reviewing the federal legislation affecting the digital media sector.

There’s an impressive list of speakers, all of whom are directly involved in the digital media business, whether as producers, regulators, entrepreneurs or academics.

You can register here, and your SOCAN membership will be validated at the door.