Radio Distribution - How Do You Get Paid When You Get Played?
Royalties from the performance of songs on radio account for over one quarter of the approximate $160M SOCAN distributes annually.
Along with musical works used in live concerts and in TV shows, radio play is one of the key ways your compositions earn you money.
Where Does This Money Come From?
All of the 700+ radio stations licenced by the CRTC in Canada purchase a blanket licence from SOCAN granting them permission to publicly
broadcast – or “perform” – virtually any song or musical composition that exists in the world. This licence fee – a small percentage of their
advertising revenue or operating budget – is a tariff set by the Copyright Board of Canada.
Who Gets the Money?
Money is paid out to songwriters, composers and their publishers in proportion to how much of their music was used on the airwaves.
At SOCAN, we use three different ways of tracking who gets played, and therefore who gets paid.
1. Radio Census
SOCAN obtains 100% census performance data from approximately 160 radio stations, which provides approximately 65% of SOCAN’s
domestic radio revenue. SOCAN uses Digital Audio Identification technology, or DAI, which uses pattern recognition to identify musical
works aired on radio by comparing them against a BDS library of known works.
To ensure that your works are registered with BDS, and to take advantage of audio fingerprinting technology, follow the
instructions listed here. For more information about BDS, click here.
2. Radio Survey
SOCAN conducts an extensive survey of non-census commercial radio stations representing different music formats, regions and languages.
Stations are surveyed 3 or 4 days each quarter of the year for a total of 28 days per year (only performances reported in these surveys are paid).
Stations broadcasting less than 12 hours of local programming are not included in SOCAN's survey.
This survey system benefits those members having more widespread airplay of their songs over a longer period of time. College and Community
radio is also subject to a survey four times annually (3 or 4 day periods).
Survey representation is accurate, but make sure that all of your works are registered either by using SOCAN’s online works
registration tools or by calling SOCAN at 1-866-30 SOCAN
3. CBC Radio
Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) national and regional radio performances are also subject to a census, meaning that all programming
information received from the CBC is processed and paid. The CBC provides airplay logs of national and regional programming on a census
basis, and CBC local programming is paid out using a sample method.
Census representation is accurate, but make sure that all of your works are registered either by using SOCAN’s online works
registration tools, or by calling SOCAN at 1-866-30 SOCAN
If you have any questions about this or any other topic, contact SOCAN at 1-866-30.SOCAN or go to www.socan.ca