music comes from ,” adds McCarty , before cautioning , “ There are also a lot of businesses that don ’ t and there are some pretty prominent entities whose business relies on music that you ’ d be surprised what their attitude is towards paying .” The lesson for artists is that it may be a good idea to ask the venue ahead of time if it ’ s licenced by SOCAN .
Aside from the licence fee , the other main criterion is there needs to be a ticket price or admission cost of at least six dollars . “ I don ’ t know where the six dollars came from ; it ’ s an historic figure that ’ s been there for quite a while and hasn ’ t been changed ,” says McCarty . “ So with inflation eating away at the value of our currency , it ’ s actually in relative terms gone down over the years . So it ’ s not a huge threshold and every bit helps .”
That six-dollar threshold is important for artists to know , because it ’ s common for a venue to set a five-dollar cover charge at the door , or for the artists themselves to set a price of five dollars or less to entice audiences . Musician-friendly venues will advise musicians , in such scenarios , to bump the price up to six dollars , but don ’ t count on it .
Luckily , there are folks like Shawn Creamer , owner of the Dakota Tavern in Toronto and The Hayloft Dancehall in Prince Edward County , ON . “ Often , when I ’ m booking bands at the Dakota and it ’ s their first time through and they ’ re going to play on a Tuesday or Wednesday night , they tell me they want to set the ticket price at five dollars ,” says Creamer . “ We always tell them , ‘ No , you should do six or seven dollars because then you can submit your set list [ to SOCAN ].’”
“ God bless him ! I love him ! We ’ ll have to make him Licensee of the Year ,” exclaims McCarty when Creamer ’ s words are recounted to him . “ A lot of businesses and business owners just don ’ t understand what it is and how it works and they don ’ t connect the dots that this money they ’ re paying [ in licence fees ] goes to the people who wrote the music that ’ s being presented in their place . They might understand the value of music to their business , they just don ’ t get that connection , often because they ’ re handing money over to the artist . They ’ re saying , ‘ Well I just paid you ,’ but they didn ’ t pay them for their songwriting . These days , the way that music trends have gone , more and more recording artists and performing artists are doing songs that they didn ‘ t write by themselves or , in many cases , at all . Let ’ s say in the case of co-writing , the co-writers , generally speaking , usually aren ’ t on tour with [ the performing artist ] and they ’ re not benefitting from the ticket sales or the merchandise sales . Their only economic benefit from the concert business is through their SOCAN royalties .”
The last part of the equation – and where it often breaks down , as McCarty said – is getting the artist to actually submit their show information to SOCAN . Unlike , say , the broadcast or streaming royalties SOCAN collects and distributes , live performances royalties require some administrative work from the artist . Using the online SOCAN members portal , the artist is required to submit a Notification of Live Music Performance ( NLMP ) form , which details the basic show information , including venue , date , ticket or admission price ( if applicable ), other artists on the bill ( if applicable ), and the set list . SOCAN also requires proof of performance and McCarty says they ’ re pretty flexible about what they ’ ll accept as proof . It could be something like a ticket stub or website concert listing , or an email or contract from the promoter or venue . Altogether , it ’ s not a very onerous process , especially given the rewards .
“ You ’ d be surprised at how much could be sitting there for you after a couple of years , even though you ’ re not a household name or a national touring act . So we certainly think it ’ s worth it for anybody to go get the money ,” says McCarty .
Regarding how much SOCAN is paying , it is the greater of two options . First , the licence fee paid to SOCAN by the venue is three per cent of the ticket and door revenue from that show . That full amount is then passed on to the performing songwriter ( s ) and other SOCAN rights holders for the songs performed . So , for example , if the venue made $ 3,000 from ticket sales and admission , it pays $ 90 to SOCAN and that same amount is passed on as royalties to the relevant rights holders . But the great news for smaller acts is that SOCAN also pays a minimum rate of $ 75 per show . So even if only $ 100 dollars was made by the venue , and so only three dollars was received by SOCAN , it still pays out $ 75 as royalties for that show . So it ’ s obvious how
Mike McCarty
the live performance royalties can quickly add up .
SOCAN has a pool of money from undistributed licence fees that it uses to pay the difference on those shows where the three per cent fee is less than $ 75 . SOCAN is able to pay out more than it collects on some shows because it also collects a significant amount of money from licence fees for shows where the artist doesn ’ t submit their information , and therefore doesn ’ t collect their royalties .
That three per cent licence fee or $ 75 minimum is paid to all the relevant rights holders ( i . e . songwriters and publishers ) whose songs were performed . So , in the simplest example , if you ’ re a self-published , solo singer-songwriter performing your own songs , you keep all SOCAN live performance royalties that are paid for your performances . If you have an equal co-writer , it ’ s split 50 / 50 . If you perform 19 songs you wrote and one song written by someone else , you get 95 per cent of the money and the other writer receives five per cent . If you have a publisher , they also get a cut .
“ I understand people ’ s hesitancy in that it can seem complicated and we do think the process can be simplified – and we ’ re working on that to bring it up-to-date technology-wise and user experience-wise – but it ’ s sometimes a bit baffling when we ’ ll call somebody and say , ‘ You know , we have money here for you and it ’ s not a trivial amount ,’ and it seems to be hard to get them to send the set lists in ,” says Mc- Carty . With that , he tells Canadian Musician , “ There are really three main points I ’ d like your readers going away remembering : send us your set lists , send us your set lists , and send us your set lists .” You get the point .
Michael Raine is the Senior Editor of Canadian Musician .
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