more SOCAN

I guess what is bothering me is this...well, it would seem as though SOCAN is useful, I won't deny that... and for some musicians it is the difference between receiving or not receiving sizeable amounts of money...but for the majority of musicians it means getting a small cheque every once in a while.

I was a member of SOCAN back in the brief time I was trying to make a career of being a punk musician. Not that I got very far in my career, but for me SOCAN membership meant not getting any money at all, rather just a glossy magazine.

I now work in community and social services and unions are very active in this field. I don't think we would tolerate what most musicians have to put up with...we expect to get paid either hourly or on salary for the work we do. We don't just get paid if our clients like our work. And besides payment, there is the recognition that we are potentially putting ourselves in a very vulerable position, not unlike musicians.

Ah, well I am trying to make sense of what I am able to download and read about SOCAN. I cannot say I know very much as I was not a professional musician for very long. But I am wondering if there are some aspects of being a musician that SOCAN overlooks.

SOCAN we?

From SOCAN Website, top bar, "About SOCAN"

"Overview...SOCAN is an organization that administers the communication and performing rights of virtually the world's entire repertoire of copyright-protected music, when it is used in Canada. We collect licence fees, then distribute the fees as royalties to our members and affiliated performing rights organizations (PROs) worldwide. We ensure that music creators and publishers get paid for the communication and public performance of their music in Canada. To do this, we collect fees from individuals, businesses and organizations that play music in public, broadcast it, or communicate it by telecommunication. We do what's right for music."

"What We Do... As a collective for the performing rights of our members - the creators and publishers of music - we make sure they get paid for the public performance and communication to the public of their music. We do that by collecting licence fees, as set by the Copyright Board of Canada, from anyone playing or broadcasting live or recorded music."

"Who We Serve...We serve our members, the Canadian creators and publishers of music, and the members of international affiliated performing rights organizations. We act on their behalf to collect licence fees from users and then distribute these fees to our members and affiliates in the form of royalties.

We also serve our customers – the venue operators, broadcasters, promoters, and others who authorize or perform the music in their establishments or at their events. Through their association with SOCAN, our customers enjoy the benefit of accessing the world's repertoire of copyright-protected music through a single central entity."

I am going to be reading and writing more about this I think...