First the disclaimer; the information contained on this page is provided as a guideline only and is in no way a substitute for proper advice from a lawyer who understands the legal ins and outs of the entertainment business in Canada.

As a musician who wants to place your music in the production music market you need to be aware of how copyright operates in Canada and the four types of music licenses that come into play.

Copyright

In Canada you own the copyright to your music as soon as you create it. You don't have to register your work with a copyright office, as you would in the USA for instance. The Canadian Intellectual Property Office can register your copyright for a fee of about $50.00 per song, but registration isn't mandatory to actually establish your copyright.

SOCAN has some good links and material on Canadian copyright that are worth looking at. You can click here to check out that information on the SOCAN Web site.

Two separate copyrights exist in your music, one for the composition (the songwriting) and another for the recording of your music. If you're working with a music publisher like Sounds of Canada, you may assign all or part of your copyrights to your publisher in exchange for their efforts in marketing your music for you.

Assignment and Licensing

Assignment, as we said above, is when you actually give up a portion of your interest in your copyright and assign it to someone else. This is a common practice in the music industry, giving musicians the opportunity of getting their music sold without having to invest a fortune in marketing. Typically, the holder of the copyright for a particular composition or song, usually the musician, will assign the entire copyright to a music publisher who in turn markets the composition and pays the musician a share of licensing fees and performance royalties. Although sharing formulas vary depending on the particular agreement, in Canada, the publisher usually retains about 25% of all fees and royalties, returning 75% to the musician.

Licensing provides a way for a Music User to use your music in Film. TV, or Internet productions etc. without having to acquire the copyright. The four types of licenses in Canada are for Synchronization, Master Use, Mechanical and Performance.

Synchronization License

The Synchronization License authorizes a producer to use your music alongside visual images such as film or TV. Your music is "synchronized" with the presentation of the visual media. The producer usually pays a fixed, one-time fee to the publisher of the composition for the license. The holder of a Synchronization License may have someone else perform your music and may alter it to fit a particular use. But more commonly, to save money, the producer will use your recorded track in which case the Master Use License also comes into play.

Master Use License

The Master Use License authorizes the producer to use your actual recorded track alongside the visual media. Again, the producer usually pays a fixed, one-time fee to the publisher of the track for the license. This license would apply if, for example, a producer used one of the tracks from your CD as background or theme music for a movie or TV show.

The Master Use License does not replace the Synchronization License and both licenses must be acquired if your recorded track is being used.

At Sounds of Canada, we make it possible for our Music Users to acquire both the Synchronization and Master Use licenses for a composition in a single online transaction, saving them the time and expense of chasing down both the publisher of the music and the owner of the recording they want to use.

Mechanical License

The Mechanical License authorizes the holder to reproduce a recording of a musical composition. So if someone wants to use your recorded track on a compilation CD for example, they must pay a mechanical royalty for each copy of the CD that they sell. The current rate is $0.091 per track up to five minutes in length and $0.0175 for each additional minute.

Performance License

The Performance License allows your music to be performed in public. This license covers any public performance including radio play, TV broadcast, Internet streaming, and even restaurant and elevator background music! This license is the one with the potential to make real money for the musician.

It would be impossible for radio stations and such to arrange a Performance License with the copyright holder of each and every song they play, so the industry has developed organizations called "Collectives" or "Performance Rights Organizations"  (PROs) such as SOCAN, who manage the performance rights on behalf of the copyright holders. The PROs in the USA are ASCAP and BMI.

Your PRO monitors performances of your music around the world, collects performance royalties, and pays them out to the the copyright holder, usually the publisher, who in turn pays the musician.

Music Users usually pay an blanket license fee to the PRO to cover off all music that they are performing publicly. Then based on playlists and other data that are filed with the PRO, the money collected is divided between the various copyright holders.

Check out the SOCAN Web site to learn more about PROs.