Festivals need a SOCAN License because supporting music creators goes beyond the stage. Without music creators, there would be no music. And without music, there would be no festival.
At SOCAN, we ensure that the music creators – the people that wrote the songs – are fairly compensated whenever their work is performed in public, whether on radio, streaming, or live onstage.
Canadian music festivals connect communities, fuel the economy, and showcase our amazing homegrown talent. But it’s important that everyone gets paid. Performers are paid, technicians and sound crew are paid, vendors are paid. So, why not pay the people who made the music possible in the first place? It’s only right – and legally required – that the songwriters who created the music being played at a festival are also paid. When a festival puts on a commercial performance, it’s never exempt from its legal duty to compensate music creators.
Paying the performer is not the same as paying for the music itself.
When festivals pay their license fees, they go to music creators – who might not be the performers onstage. They can be co-writers, music composers, producers, music publishers, and other people who might have shares of a given song. This is why festivals can’t pay license fees directly to the performer; they must be paid to SOCAN, who ensures that all creators, on every song, get their share of royalties.
That’s why we take action to hold festivals accountable. SOCAN license fees keep the creative ecosystem thriving by compensating the people who wrote and contributed to the songs. We want to work together with festivals, and all other live music presenters, to build a future where Canadian music is sustainable, respected, and fairly rewarded, both on and off the stage.
How is the license fee determined?
The license fee for a live popular music concert is three percent of the gross ticket sales for paid concerts, or three percent of the fees paid to performers for free concerts (with a minimum fee of $35 per concert) as set by the Copyright Board of Canada. This license fee applies to live music performances by artists at concert halls, theatres, and similar venues, including open-air events, and festivals.
How does SOCAN know who to pay?
Licensed festivals are required to submit a set list, or set lists, containing every song that was performed at the festival, to SOCAN. We then pay each rightsholder their share of the license fee paid by the festival, for the songs performed.