“The SOCAN” trophy chosen for immersive exhibit in North Carolina

Story by SOCAN | Wednesday April 19th, 2023

As we prepare for the Gala SOCAN in Montréal on May 7, 2023, “The SOCAN” – the world’s only major music industry trophy that’s an actual musical instrument – has been chosen for a special exhibit at the Mint Museum of Charlotte in North Carolina, the foremost craft museum in the U.S.

Along with other major company and industry trophies, “The SOCAN” will be on display from December of  2023 until February of 2024, with an information placard highlighting its background, purpose, and the intricate materials and process used to create it.

The brainchild of SOCAN Chief Communications & Marketing Officer Andrew Berthoff and then-Chief Membership Officer Michael McCarty, “The SOCAN” started as a somewhat radical “What if?” idea at a brainstorming meeting, on a dark night in November.

“I remember it well,” says Berthoff. “When the idea of a trophy that was also a musical instrument was first raised, a few in the meeting looked at us like we had two heads. There was a lot of resistance. Looking back, it’s amazing that ‘The SOCAN’ actually came to fruition, through sheer persistence, and believing that it was the right idea.”

The SOCAN is presented to Achievement Award winners at both the SOCAN Awards in Toronto, and the SOCAN Gala in Montréal. The biggest award winner at each event is allowed to choose the notes for the crotales, made by SABIAN Percussion of New Brunswick, that adorn the trophy – chosen from a song or  composition that they wrote. SOCAN teamed up with the Society Awards of New Jersey to bring the trophy to life.

The Mint Museum is a prestigious fine art museum in North Carolina that hosts more than 150,000 visitors each year. We’re thrilled to be a part of the exhibition!

Tanya Van Luven, SOCAN’s new Director of Publisher Relations

Story by SOCAN | Wednesday April 19th, 2023

SOCAN is pleased to announce that Tanya Van Luven has joined our team in the new role of Director of Publisher Relations, within our Membership department, and based in Toronto.

SOCAN’s music publisher members are vitally important to us, and it takes a specific level of expertise to understand the needs and requirements of the publishing community. We needed a specialist dedicated to serving our publisher members, with in-depth experience in the field

Tanya has more than 13 years of professional experience in music publishing and the music industry. She specializes in music licensing, rights management, and intellectual property management and negotiations. She’s focused on bringing solutions to serve our publisher members.

As Director of Publisher Relations, she’ll have a decisive impact on the quality of the services we offer to publishers, both at the strategic and operational levels. At the same time, she’ll focus on creating, fostering, and maintaining relationships with the publishing community, and going beyond their immediate concerns through various initiatives and projects.

Tanya joins us after serving as Manager of the Client Services Division at Anthem Entertainment, a valuable SOCAN publisher member. There, she worked with a team of client service managers to ensure regular income analysis, ongoing accurate registrations of new works, fulsome collection of all publishing royalties in adherence with contractual agreements, while delivering transparent, accurate, and timely distributions of royalty statements to clients.

Before that, she was Anthem’s Senior Client Services Account Manager, Film & TV. She delivered, among other things, content for audiovisual secondary rights, music publishing, music licensing, production music, and digital monetization and rights management.

Tanya began her career in the music industry in 2008, when she joined Warner Music Canada as National Promotions Coordinator. She then moved to Artist Services, where she focused on the various revenue streams of an artist’s career, offering services in artist management, merchandise production, VIP ticketing, and e-commerce.

Tanya’s experience and expertise will be a terrific addition to our team, as she brings with her a wealth of knowledge about how publishers operate, and how we can best support them.

Photo by Tiana Feng. Left to right: Rachel Johnstone, Neil Parfitt, Antonio Naranjo, Annelise Noronha, Brian Pickett, John Rowley, Jason Turriff, Rob Carli, Kevin Kossowan,  Melanie Doane, Creighton Doane, Adrian Ellis, Amin Bhatia

SOCAN celebrates our member nominees for 2023 Canadian Screen Awards

Story by Howard Druckman | Wednesday April 19th, 2023

SOCAN celebrated our #ComposersWhoScore nominees in the 2023 Canadian Screen Awards, with a cocktail reception at Gladstone House in downtown Toronto, on April 11, 2023.

Attending SOCAN member nominees included Rachel Johnstone, Neil Parfitt, Antonio Naranjo, Annelise Noronha, Brian Pickett, John Rowley, Jason Turriff, Rob Carli, Kevin Kossowan,  Melanie Doane, Creighton Doane, Adrian Ellis, and Amin Bhatia. Check out the nominations.

“We’re so proud of you,” said SOCAN CEO Jennifer Brown, addressing the nominees. “We’re so honoured to be your collective. We’ll be rooting you on all this week, and wishing you all the best.”

“Our composers mean the world to us,” added Gagan Singh, SOCAN Creative Executive, Film/TV and Visual Media. “The screen composer community in Canada always does an amazing job. Thanks for coming, and keep on rockin’.”

In addition to Brown and Singh, SOCAN attendees included Membership Department representatives Cameron Kennedy, Gary Laranja, Paul Stillo, Alex Golden, Nicole Fezza, and Claire Boué; and Communications & Marketing Department representatives Tiana Feng and Howard Druckman.