Thread: Music Licensing in Canada

Valizan posted this on tribe.net:



Yasmina Ramzy posted this on the Raks Toronto e-mail list, and I'm cross-posting it here because it is fairly important at least to Canadian dancers.


IMPORTANT - A law has been passed that enables SOCAN to charge all dance and fitness teachers and dance schools to pay licensing fees to be able to use prerecorded music from anywhere in the world in their classes.

If a school pays, it covers the teachers who teaches for that school but not outside. For a freelance teacher, it will probably run about $64.00 a year.

Schools can be in the thousands of dollars. I have been involved in many discussions with SOCAN and Dance Ontario
who has been advocating on our (dance community) behalf for them to more lenient. They are going after big schools right now but very soon will try and get everyone even teaching in the Church basement. They say they will be sending spies into classes to catch teachers in the act who do not have a license.

After Dec.2, full details will be available but I am just giving you a heads up. It is because you as a teacher are benefitting from the hard work and creation of another artist, so the same way you pay for these rights in performance, you will now have to pay in class.

This is a world wide movement so it is not going away. Yes, it applies to Egyptian music but not to music created over 50 years ago. Live drummers improvising and piano players who play Bach are obviously except.

The fees will probably be based on numbers of students. Sorry, for the bad news but on the other had I guess we do want to support other artists.

Will keep you updated.
Yasmina

Gotta love the money grubbers...

Not great news, but thanks for passing this on, Shira.

Hi Shira,
Thanks for that. Socan has been at it for awhile. We get hit with the performance fees all the time, however, if they are gonna start with the inclass thing...that is another story.

What ticks me off is I buy the music. I feel I am supporting the artists that way by legally purchasing the music to use. Zorba, you are right....THE MONEY GRUBBERS.....

Thanks again for this info, I will have to look into this some more.

Same rules to some degree apply in the US as well...ASCAP, BMI...Mafia...