Forum Closed
The forum is now to new posts. All the historical content is still available to browse.
if you are looking for musicians to play with, please view the Bands Seeking Musicians list, or use the Musicians Directory
You can use our pages on social media to connect:
SOCAN October 9th - make your voices heard
| Message Board > Music Chitchat - Heavy > SOCAN October 9th - make your voices heard |
| moron User Info... | Howdy. SOCAN (society of composers, authors and music publishers of Canada) is holding an "info session" this Saturday afternoon at Long & Mcquade: SOCAN Info Session, Long & McQuade/Clinic Room, Victoria, BC (October 9, 2004) Details: Member Services presents an info session at 2 p.m. Attendees: Relationship Manager – Member Services, West Coast Division: Terry O’Brien This would be an excellent chance to voice your opinion on issues such as excessive blank media levies, attacks against consumer rights (i.e. the steady encroachment against fair use), radio payola, DRM issues (digital rights management), attacks against alternate distribution mechanisms such as peer to peer networks and similar problems that can be traced back to SOCAN policies and their lack of accountability. You can read up on SOCAN here: http://www.socan.ca You can see the kind of cultural tarrifs they enforce here: https://www.socan.ca/jsp/en/resources/tariffs.jsp The above does not include levies which are handled via "CPCC" (SOCAN is part of CPCC): http://www.cpcc.ca/english/index.htm Hope to see you there. Cheers - Wed, 6 Oct 2004 9:19pm | ||
| Chris Logan User Info... | Anyone interested in the way music is distributed nowadays would be well served by attending this talk. I already know the rules up and down, but the knowledge wasn't happily gained. That's all I say. (Smiley). - Wed, 6 Oct 2004 9:40pm | ||
| Curmudgeon Rocker User Info... | moron: I hope you get George Hamilton on film again! Do you think he'd like Peruke? - Thu, 7 Oct 2004 8:41am | ||
| Cordova Bay User Info... | It IS important to learn about SOCAN and other music/cultural organizations and this would be a super chance to do so. However, it is not really the best place to discuss "issues such as excessive blank media levies, attacks against consumer rights (i.e. the steady encroachment against fair use), radio payola, DRM issues (digital rights management), attacks against alternate distribution mechanisms such as peer to peer networks and similar problems." SOCAN is a PRO (Performing Rights Organization) and is therefore involved with public "performances" of licenced music. Therefore, it does not have any interest in "fair use" issues - even though this is an American concept that is not reflected in Canadian law - since it affects copying music not the public performance of it. Likewise it is not particularly interested in radio payola (again a no no in the US but not against Canadian laws), DRM per se or alternate distribution mechanisms. Its only function with regard to the blank media levy is to distribute royalties to its members. It does not set rates or collect funds. Those are in the domain of the CPCC. (CIRPA - Canadian Indepenent Record Producer's Association - has a good list of collectives that is worth a minute or two of your time to review at (and I hope this link works because it is quite long) http://www.cirpa.ca/MBCCore.cfm?Page=home&TitleID=7&SubPage=Music&SubPAGE1=GetMusicProfile&mark=titleid&value=7 You might want to question Terry O’Brien (who is very knowledgeable) how indies can get their fair share of performance royalties from radio airplay. The current system favours major label artists because of the selected sampling methods of data gathering. Perhaps it would not be too much of stretch to engage in a discussion of the CRTC and CanCon rules - even though SOCAN is not directly involved in setting these. Another topic that might be of interest in the "broadcasting" of music on Internet radio programs. That does fall under the SOCAN umbrella somewhat. Many of the issues you raise are more related with CMRRA (publishing mechanical rights collective) and record companies/artists themselves. Most of the press in the US has been regarding actions taken by the RIAA who works on behalf of the record labels and distributors. In Canada the equivalent organization is CRIA. Music publishers have taken more of a back seat approach through most of the debates, even though they too are losing money. They are letting the record industry cover the legal bills and get the bad press. But even then, the music publishers would probably address their requirements through the CMRRA in Canada rather than SOCAN. As for "SOCAN policies and their lack of accountability," I am not sure what you mean. They are accountable to their members and while they are not perfect they are pretty damned good. Their new web-based registering and processing system has been a welcome new development and hopefully not the last good application to come from them in the 21st century. I hope there is big turnout for the seminar. - Thu, 7 Oct 2004 11:51pm | ||
| The One After Two User Info... | want to get your share of some SOCAN money? Find out when SOCAN samples CFUV, play nice to a couple CFUV announcers, request your song like the devil, have friends request the song like the devil, have mom request the song like the devil for the three or five days. Cash cheque, repeat yearly. Get really sophisticated and do it to CiTR, CJSF and COOP. - Fri, 8 Oct 2004 12:26am | ||
| ML7Mike User Info... | Socan are good for getting musical gear insurance - Fri, 8 Oct 2004 9:55am | ||
| moron User Info... | Cordova: Your response pretty much mirrors the typical SOCAN line as far as "we are only a performing rights organization". Yes, SOCAN's "official" reason for being around is to dole out performance royalties. However, they actively push for changes to copyright law to achieve things like the blank media levy (suggesting SOCAN had nothing to do with this is ridiculous, they are a member of the CPCC), to implement new royalty regimes (SOCAN has/is actively pushing to make ISPs responsible for the private traffic of their users, i.e. filtering and royalities) as well as trying to get laws equivalent to the shortly about to be enacted as law "PIRATE" and "INDUCE" acts in the States (hey, let's replace the drug war with the "copyright war"). The big problem here is that organizations like SOCAN are way too blind to see the larger ramifications of the legislation they push and sign on to. Another example is to do with the blank media levy. The trade off with the blank media levy was that enshrined into copyright law was the fact that Canadians were allowed to copy discs for personal use. What SOCAN, CRIA, etc. (via organization fronts like the CPCC) are now working on is removing the ability of users to copy their purchased music at the hardware level by requiring manufacturers to implment hardware controls. Their ideal situation would be where you pay a copying tax AND cannot copy. MP3s are in quasi realm at the moment but copying a CD is currently legal in Canada. My comments about lack of accountability relate to the fact that although SOCAN is supposedly a democratic organization, the political setup is such that incumbant troughers are heavily favoured. First, those already on the board are automatically nominated to run. For anyone else to run they need to get something like 20 fellow members to sign their nomination (I forget the exact number, it is in that range). Unfortunately, there is no way to reach other members since SOCAN does not give out contact details or run a forum of any kind. Those already on the board however get free advertising via the SOCAN magazine. There are also numerous conflict of interest issues where SOCAN employees and members essentially give themselves awards. I definitely agree that other organizations are as or more corrupt (CRIA in particular) but SOCAN is the only one that we personally can join and have any chance of influencing. SOCAN claims it has a mandate to aggressively go after all performance royalities (sock hops for example) but yet there has never been any general votes on any of these policies. A quick read of the SOCAN mag suggests that all musicians in Canada agree with their policy directions. This is not the case and this is why I consider it important to make it clear to them that their anti-social policy agenda is not apprecaited by all. I have met Terry Obrien previously and he seems like a decent fellow, the most so of any of the SOCAN people I have met. But that does not change the fact that organization as a whole is shady and is here mainly to support old school industry channels (i.e. major labels) plus its own beuracracy and not Canadain musicians as a whole. IMHO Cheers - Fri, 8 Oct 2004 2:06pm | ||
| Chris Logan User Info... | The SOCAN rep we (Logan's) have dealt with for years IS a decent fellow, and I genuinely like him personally. However, I have also let him know what I think about SOCAN's policies, at least insofar as they affect music venues, promoters, and live performers. Just so people know, venues and promoters are required to pay SOCAN a percentage of ALL money paid out to live performers over the course of the year (not to mention a separate percentage for CD's played in the premises, Karaoke, etc.). This percentage is collected under the assumption that live bands will play a certain number of covers--the money collected ostensibly goes into a big pot to pay the original artists for the use of their material. Since the overwhelming majority of performers at our venue play original music, in our case the live SOCAN levy is basically a government-sanctioned cash grab ( although SOCAN is not a government body, parliament has granted it authority to collect these levies). Some people might not have much sympathy for venues in this case (since we're all rolling in dough), but people should know that, as Moron points out, even the local sock hop or all-ages promoter is supposed to pay this levy--and if SOCAN can track them down, they will. - Mon, 11 Oct 2004 9:48am | ||
|
|||
Not logged in
Log In / Register (optional)
Featured Events
Featured Historical Events
Featured Article
Newest Profiles
West Coast REACH Association
Utilizing music & the other performing arts for social good
722 Cormorant St. Victoria BC
Open / Operational
Thursday Night Jam at The Loft
Cancelled - no jam. Drummer's head wouldn't fit through the ...
229 Gorge Road East Victoria BC
Closed / Inactive
First Metropolitan United Fellowship Hall
Large hall in the First Metropolitan Church Building.
Open / Operational
