Re:Sound, SOCAN Launch Entandem, A Joint License Portal

By FYI Staff

Re: Sound and the Society of Composers, Authors and Music Publishers of Canada (SOCAN) say they are ready to launch a B2B joint venture known as Entandem, which is co-owned by the two licensing organizations. Entandem brings the music licensing now managed separately by each organization into a single, jointly-operated business.

Entandem will launch nationally in July. Until then the licensing will continue to be administered separately.

The new joint venture builds on a 2017 pilot project that combined music licensing for both parent organizations using an online portal but then limited to businesses applying in the province of Ontario.

“Entandem is all about simplicity,” says Re:Sound president Ian MacKay explains. “For most businesses that use music, a single licensing organization means a simplified experience, by interacting with one organization instead of two,” with the online licenses facilitating the financial split between the two orgs.

One license is to be obtained from SOCAN, which handles both live music and recorded music licenses in Canada. The second must be obtained from Re:Sound which is responsible for collecting tariffs on the use of recorded music.  SOCAN and Re:Sound have different rights holders.

Music licenses will continue to be based on agreements with users or tariffs approved by the Copyright Board of Canada.

While Entandem will collect licenses for live performances and the general use of recorded music in public venues, Re:Sound and SOCAN will continue to administer royalties separately for recorded music, for example on YouTube, social media, radio, television, movies and online streaming services in single-use or as copies.

Background music suppliers will also continue to obtain licenses directly from each of the rights organizations.

SOCAN CEO Eric Baptiste added: “Re:Sound and SOCAN getting together for Entandem means a strengthened ability to reach more businesses that should be paying both music licenses that provide vital support to music creators, especially the emerging and middle-class ones. By making the process easier, we expect stronger engagement across the country and, with that, an increased realization of earned royalties for Canada’s songwriters, composers, publishers, labels and performers.”