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Courtesy Photo
Jennifer Brown, CEO of SOCAN (left) and Tobias Holzmüller, CEO of GEMA
Touring
SOCAN Joins GEMA's Live Music Royalty Network, One Arena
The Canadian music rights company is the first organization outside of Europe to join the network, whose goal is to provide more transparency regarding live music royalties.
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SOCAN has joined GEMA's live royalty network, One Arena.
The Canadian music rights society has become the first non-European rights collection company to join the initiative, which is meant to provide transparency surrounding live music and concert royalties. One Arena's mission is to track concerts worldwide and provide information about licensing and royalty payments, giving a clearer picture of how performance royalties are calculated and distributed to musicians.
With SOCAN on board, One Arena will now add major Canadian concerts to its repertoire, while SOCAN will be able to access performance royalty information pertaining to other One Arena members and their international concerts. The network now counts eight members, with seven European organizations: SUISA (Switzerland & Liechtenstein), AKM (Austria), Buma-Stemra (Netherlands), KODA (Denmark), TONO (Norway), OSA (Czech Republic) and GEMA (Germany).
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"One Arena’s strength lies in the expertise and commitment of all the collecting societies involved," says Dr. Tobias Holzmüller, CEO of GEMA. "Together, we’re building greater transparency and making it easier for songwriters and artists to understand how royalties are generated by their international live performances. We’re delighted to welcome SOCAN into our network; this will enable us to draw on SOCAN’s expertise in the Canadian market and support even more rightsholders in the future through One Arena."
The move comes amid a year of expansion and action for SOCAN, particularly defined by its acquisition of the CMRRA (Canadian Musical Reproduction Rights Agency) and its blockbuster copyright infringement lawsuit against Suno, in which the collection society sued the AI music generation application for over $10 million in September. A few months prior, the German court ruled in favour of GEMA after the German society filed its own copyright lawsuit against Suno for infringing on tracks in its database such as Boney M.’s "Rasputin" and Lou Bega’s "Mambo No. 5."
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"For songwriters, a concert doesn’t end with the final note. When it comes to international performances in particular, the path to collecting and distributing royalties is often long and has information gaps," says Jennifer Brown, CEO of SOCAN. "One Arena helps us to track our members’ performances abroad more efficiently, with a level of transparency that is welcomed in the live performance sector. We’re delighted to be part of this network that is putting the needs and royalties of members first."
Last year, performance royalties played a central role in the legal dispute between SOCAN and the Festival d'été de Québec (FEQ) in which the festival was sued for allegedly not having a license from SOCAN and failing to pay royalties to the society for three years. The claim was resolved by both parties at the beginning of this year.
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