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Re:Sound and SOCAN Working Together to Make Licensing Easier

08.29.17

Re:Sound and SOCAN are working together on a joint licensing portal that will benefit the two organisations’ respective rights holders – songwriters, composers, publishers, artists, and record labels – by making the licensing process simpler and more straightforward for businesses like bars and restaurants, hairdressers and retailers that use music to make their business better.

SOCAN represents the performing rights of Canadian and international composers and publishers.

The pilot will allow music users to obtain a single report and payment for their use of recorded music through an online portal. This portal will serve as a one-stop-shop where businesses can report and pay both their quarterly Re:Sound and SOCAN licensing fees in one place, rather than reporting and paying separately for licenses with each organization.

“For businesses, it’s all just music and they don’t always understand why they are required to pay two different organizations,” says Re:Sound President Ian MacKay. “The one-stop licensing portal means that we can eliminate some duplication between the two organizations in terms of outreach to businesses. This portal will make this simpler for businesses and bring economy of scale for our rights holders. It’s a win-win situation.”

“For too long, Canadian organizations that use music have had to deal with double the paperwork when paying their legal music licenses,” said SOCAN CEO Eric Baptiste. “By combining information on a single online platform, we will reduce the time and confusion, enabling businesses that have other more important things on their plate to get these done in one fell swoop.”

The two companies have selected a small group of users and specific tariffs for the pilot, and will be rolling out a more robust version of the program in 2018.

This new portal will come at no additional cost to users – in fact, the intent is to assist businesses by decreasing administration time and improving efficiency.

These joint initiatives aim to provide greater transparency, clarity and efficiency to businesses that use music, regardless of the size or industry, providing them with a single point of contact and a simpler and more straightforward licensing process.

The use of music has numerous benefits to business, and being properly licensed helps ensure that rights holders are fairly compensated for their work.

There will be no reduction in the Re:Sound and SOCAN license amounts when transacting on the new online portal.

Stay tuned for more on this initiative in the coming weeks.