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The Board Raises License Fees For Commercial Radio Stations

The Copyright Board of Canada announced that commercial radio stations will pay the Society of Composers, Authors and Music Publishers of Canada (SOCAN) and the Neighbouring Rights Collective of Canada (NRCC) for their use of music from 2003 to 2007.

The Board didn’t increase the amount of royalty payments for stations whose annual advertising revenues are less than $1.25 million, it did however, increase the payments for larger stations. The Copyright Act set the rate of a $100 payment to NRCC from the stations on their first $1.25 million of annual advertising revenues. Stations will continue to pay 3.2 per cent of that amount to SOCAN and $100 to NRCC. For stations with higher revenues, the rate increased from 3.2 to 4.4 per cent for SOCAN and from 1.44 to 2.1 per cent for NRCC. Stations that use less music will see an increase from 1.4 to 1.5 per cent for SOCAN and 0.64 to 0.75 per cent for NRCC. In total, there is an increase of a little over $11 million for SOCAN and NRCC.

Stations with annual revenues of $400,000 will continue to pay SOCAN and NRCC $13,000 in royalties per year and stations with revenues of $925,000 will continue to pay $30,000 per year. Stations with annual revenues of $4.5 million however, will increase their royalty payments by about $60,000 to $250,000.

The Board increased the royalty payments because the rate had remained unchanged for the last 25 years, the current rate was too low and did not show the appropriate value for the music and commercial radio has been using more music more efficiently in recent years.

“Music is the primary programming component of most commercial radio stations. SOCAN is proud of the Board’s conclusion and encouraged by what it means to our members and the future of the Canadian music industry,” said Paul Spurgeon, VP Legal Services and General Council of SOCAN.

SOCAN is the Canadian copyright collective for the communication and performance of musical works. The fees collected are distributed as royalties to its members and organizations throughout the world for the use of their music.

For more information, visit www.socan.ca or www.cb-cda.gc.ca/new-e.html.

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