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Music @ work in your business & SOCAN

The most immediate way to sense the value of music to your business is to imagine your business without it.

And SOCAN customers, tens of thousands across Canada, consider music so integral to their business that it's part of their brand – as important as décor.

Here is a brief explanation of why you, as an owner or operator, require a performing rights licence when you use copyright-protected music in your facility.

That's where SOCAN comes in.

SOCAN stands for Society of Composers, Authors and Music Publishers of Canada. It ensures that music creators and their publishers get paid for the communication to the public and public performance of their music.

SOCAN does this by granting performing rights licences to businesses and individuals publicly playing or broadcasting live or recorded music.

SOCAN will grant such a licence, allowing you access to virtually the world's entire repertoire of copyrightprotected music, when the applicable licence fees are paid.

These fees are based on tariff rates set by the Copyright Board of Canada.

There are more than 21 different SOCAN tariffs to accommodate the many different uses of music.

Some of the most common ones are:

Rental Functions where either live or recorded music is used – Tariff 8

This tariff pertains to banquet facilities, meeting rooms, reception areas, etc. This is NOT an annual fee tariff, but rather is charged per event, and the fee is calculated based on the capacity of the room and whether or not dancing is part of the function. Please note that while it is the facility that holds the licence and is legally responsible, it is common practice to pass along the fee to the client as one of the costs of the function.

Recorded Background Music – Tariff 15A

If you use recorded music in your dining area(s), salon, or business area, the annual fee is 11.46 cents per square foot of the public area (customer-used, not kitchen or storage).

For full details on these and other SOCAN tariffs, or to find out more about SOCAN, visit socan.ca or give us a call. For new customers, please call 1-866-944-6210 and for existing customer queries, please call 1-866-944-6223.