Who takes care of royalties?

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A music composer derives income from five sources, one being performance royalties. The performing rights of the copyright owner are a significant part of their right to reproduce or copy their works and to control such recordings, including how such recordings will be transmitted or used.

Under the Copyright Act in Canada, copyright owners license their musical works for a public performance fee that generates performance royalties for the composer. In order to administer these rights, there are a number of performing rights societies in Canada, namely AFM, SOCAN, CMRRA, and SODRAC. All are national, non-profit organizations that derive their operating budgets from the nominal commissions or membership dues.

The American Federation of Musicians (AFM) is a professional association advocating on behalf of 18,000 Canadian musicians by protecting their members' rights through collective agreements and musicians' contracts for hire.

The AFM (Canada) has 28 locals collecting royalties, providing pension plans, arranging work visa permits and instrument insurance among many other benefits to their members. The local AFM union in Montreal is Guilde des Musiciens and their site is www.guildedesmusiciens.com. The national office's site is www.afm.org and may be contacted in Toronto at (416) 391-5161.

The Society of Composers, Authors and Music Publishers of Canada (SOCAN) is a copyright music collective acting in the interests of their members by administering performing rights royalties. Their mandate is to authorize the performance rights of their members to the public through music licenses and collecting royalty payments.

The onus is on the member to inform SOCAN of a public performance at a SOCAN venue. For example, a recording drum group performing at the Sky Dome or the Museum of Civilization, for example, would fill out a notification of live performance form, including the titles and composer(s) for each song within six months of a performance. Proof that the SOCAN member performed at a specific event may include a poster, ad or newspaper article. Each province has a provincial office with toll free phone numbers. SOCAN'S website is www.socan.ca and their toll free number is 1-800-557-6226.

The Canadian Musical Reproduction Rights Agency Ltd. (CMRRA) is a licensing agency for synchronization licenses, mechanical licenses, and other musical reproduction rights uses. Synchronization licensing refers to authorization licenses for film, television and audio visual productions whereas mechanical licenses refer to licenses authorizing the reproduction of compact discs, cassettes and LPs.

The operative word here is issuance of licenses to music users of the reproduction right for music that has been fixed mechanically or copyrighted. Their members are music copyright owners, including music publishers.

Royalties are paid according to CMRRA royalty rates and the royalties are then re-distributed to their members, the majority of them being music publishers. The music publisher gets their 50 per cent share of the publisher/songwriter share for each song, and royalties are disbursed to the songwriter.

If five people co-wrote the song, the 50 per cent songwriter share will be divided up five ways. These royalty rates differ depending on the telecommunications technology (commercial radio, television, etc.) that is used in the transmission of the reproduced music. More information is available at www.cmrra.ca or by phone at (416) 926-1966 in Toronto.

The Society for Reproduction Rights of Authors, Composers and Publishers Inc. in Canada (SODRAC) is another reproduction rights society. SODRAC collects and distributes royalties for reproduction worldwide and collects the newly instituted levy on blank CD and cassette recording sales. Through collective agreements, SODRAC negotiates individual and collective agreements with sound, video recording, radio, television, and other producers through a blanket licenseto users. Through its collective agreements, SODRAC grants a blanket license to the music users for a lump-sum payment that is redistributed to its members on a quarterly basis. As the name implies, any author, composer and/or publisher is eligible for no fee registration membership. Their website is www.sodrac.com and phone number is (514) 845-3268 in Montreal.

In the end, the onus is on the author, composer and/or music publisher to monitor their performing rights and the context in which it is performed. A publishing agreement can exclude certain situations where a songwriter does not want their music played. A few years back a drum group unknowingly recorded a studio session for a well-known beer company.

Drum groups are not immune to the business side of the music industry whether they are active participants or not, and next month's article will cover powwow music and traditional copyright.

This column is for reference and education only and is not intended to be a substitute for legal advice. The author assumes no responsibility or liability arising from any outdated information, errors, omissions, claims, demands, damages, actions, or causes of actions from the use of any of the above.

Ann Brascoupe owns What's Up Promotions, a company specializing in promoting booking, and managing aboriginal artists across Canada. She can be reached at abrascoupe@hotmail.com