CMRRA Reaches Licensing Deal With Amazon Music

By FYI Staff

The Canadian Mechanical Reproduction Rights Agency has struck a deal with the just-launched premium music streaming service, Amazon Music Unlimited, in Canada.

In making the announcement, the agency says it has reached a licensing agreement with Amazon Music “to ensure” that its music publisher and rightsholder clients, which together represent more than 80,000 music catalogues, will receive royalties for the use of their works on the service.

“We’re very happy to have come to a negotiated agreement with Amazon Music and to see them enter Canada with Amazon Music Unlimited. Amazon Music and its entry will benefit both Canadian consumers and the rightsholders that we serve by offering a new point of sale and a new source of revenue for music publishers and their songwriters,” CMRRA President Caroline Rioux said.

Terms of the deal are not being disclosed, but the rates apply to the reproduction of songs on Amazon Music Unlimited, which will now be available throughout Canada for the first time.

To learn more about Amazon Music Unlimited visit amazon.ca/music/unlimited.

“CMRRA is constantly working with our licensees to create solutions to make it easier for services to come to Canada and to provide for compensation for our valued music publisher clients,” CMRRA Vice President, Legal and Business Affairs, Veronica Syrtash said.

CMRRA has taken the lead in national rate-setting efforts before the Copyright Board of Canada, as well as directly through negotiations with licensees. The organization’s work is responsible for the critical flow of digital royalties paid to all publishers and songwriters. On behalf of its music publisher clients, CMRRA issues licenses and collects royalties for the reproduction of musical works. Licensees pay fees to CMRRA, which in turn distributes the royalties to its music publisher clients on a quarterly basis.

“CMRRA has established itself as a vital resource for music publishers to manage their mechanical royalties in Canada,” said Neville Quinlan, chairman of SXWorks’ Canadian Publishers Committee and managing director of peermusic Canada. “This licensing agreement underscores CMRRA’s commitment to advocating for music publishers and self-published songwriters.”

CMRRA also collects publishing royalties from dozens of other digital companies, such as Apple, Google and Spotify.