Photo by Brad Ardley. Left to right/De gauche a droite: Racquel Villagante of/de la SOCAN, Robyn Dell’Unto, Melissa Cameron-Passley et Brandi Pickering de la SOCAN.

SOCAN presents No. 1 Song Award to Robyn Dell’Unto for “I See Gold”

Story by Howard Druckman | Wednesday May 16th, 2018

SOCAN was pleased and proud to present a No. 1 Song Award to Nashville-based professional songwriter and SOCAN member Robyn Dell’Unto for co-writing The Good Lovelies’ “I See Gold,” which topped the CBC Radio 2 Top 20 chart on Jan. 18, 2018. Dell’Unto co-wrote the song with the three band members – Caroline Brooks, Kerri Ough, and Susan Passmore – who were awarded earlier in 2018.

SOCAN A&R Representatives Melissa Cameron and Racquel Villagante, and National Events Manager Brandi Pickering , presented the award to Dell’Unto at The Broadview Hotel, in downtown Toronto, during Canadian Music Week 2018.

SOCAN congratulates Robyn Dell’Unto on this great success!

Jasmine Netsena wins first SOCAN Foundation Indigenous Songwriter Award

Story by Howard Druckman | Tuesday May 22nd, 2018

The SOCAN Foundation, part of the SOCAN Group of organizations, in partnership with TD Bank Group, presented its very first Indigenous Songwriter Award to Jasmine Netsena at the 2018 Indigenous Music Awards on satirday, May 19, 2018.

SOCAN member Netsena, from Fort Nelson, BC, received the award – which included a $10,000 cash prize, and airfare and accommodations to attend the award ceremonies in Winnipeg – from Charlie Wall-Andrews, Executive Director of SOCAN Foundation, and Tim Laronde, Regional Manager of Indigenous Banking at TD.

“I feel honoured to be selected for this award, and very grateful to everyone who worked to make this happen,” said Netsena.

“This new award recognizes artistic excellence in songwriting achieved by Indigenous music creators in Canada, and we’re proud to be able to partner with TD and the Indigenous Music Awards to celebrate Jasmine Netsena,” said Wall-Andrews. “It’s part of our ongoing, mutual effort with TD to foster, promote and diversify opportunities for music creators of Indigenous descent. We’re aiming to build inclusive grant and awards programming as diverse as the communities in which we live.”

The Jury encompassed SOCAN Members ShoShona Kish (Ontario), Alan Greyeyes (Manitoba), Celina Kalluk (Nunavut), and Moe Clark (Québec), and reviewed nearly 200 submissions.

Applications to the 2019 TD Indigenous Songwriter Awards will open in the late fall of 2018; visit www.socanfoundation.ca for more information about programs and awards.

Photo by Brad Ardley. Left to right / De gauche à droite: FranicsGotHeat, Aidan D'Aoust of/de la SOCAN

SOCAN hot on the scene at CMW 2018!

Story by Howard Druckman | Tuesday May 15th, 2018

SOCAN was hot on the scene at Canadian Music Week (CMW) 2018 in Toronto, as we presented a “Cookin’ Beats” session with multi-platinum hip-hop and R&B producer FrancisGotHeat; presented a Licensed to Play Award to The Cameron House, of Toronto; co-judged the CMW Startup Launch Pad, providing half of the cash prize to the winner; served on a panel discussion about the effect of music blogs; and hosted a booth at the exhibition hall.

The room was packed for the “Cookin’ Beats” session, on May 12 at the Sheraton Centre Toronto Hotel (which hosted the conference portion of CMW), as SOCAN A&R Representative Aidan D’Aoust talked with FrancisGotHeat – who’s created beats and co-produced songs for Drake, Big Sean, Cadence Weapon, and Roy Woods, among others. Using his laptop to illustrate and break down his work on Drake’s “4422 (featuring Sampha)” and Anders’ “Diamonds,” FrancisGotHeat said that he prefers to build songs from scratch rather than adding to an existing track, and that he likes to work in the studio with an act, face-to-face, rather than via e-mail, “so I can feel their vibe.” And he offered this succinct advice to young beat-makers, which earned a laugh: “If you want something to knock more, turn it up.”

Earlier in the week, on May 9, D’Aoust participated in the panel discussion “Digital Content Disruptors – Beyond the Blogs,” talking about the impact of the blogosphere as the main distributor for new music and artists around the world.

On May 11, at the third annual edition of the Live Music Industry Awards at the Sheraton, SOCAN Vice President, Licensing, Leslie Craig presented the SOCAN Licensed to Play Award to Cosmo Ferraro of The Cameron House in Toronto. Craig called The Cameron “a thriving cultural landmark on Queen Street West, and an important hub that’s been bringing live music to the local community since the early ‘80s.”Said Ferraro: “Thank you to SOCAN for helping me to keep the doors open.” Other award winners Licensed to Play by SOCAN included the Montreal International Jazz Festival, the Field Trip Music & Arts Festival in Toronto, the Winnipeg Folk Festival, and the Commodore Ballroom in Vancouver.

Cosmo Ferraro

Cosmo Ferraro of The Cameron House accepts the SOCAN Licensed to Play Award from SOCAN’s Leslie Craig (background).

On May 9, SOCAN Chief Membership & Business Development Officer Michael McCarty was one of six judges in the CMW Startup Launch Pad, a “pitch” competition for new Canadian businesses that are based in or connected to the music industry. The Switchboard app won this year’s prize, which consisted of $5,000 cash from SOCAN and $5,000 cash from LyricFind, legal services, strategic consulting services, one-on-one meetings with each of the judges, a 15-minute presentation to the industry during the Global Creators Summit, and a post-conference e-mail blast from CMW after the conference.

From May 8-12, throughout the conferenece, we also hosted the SOCAN booth at the The Sheraton, where several songwriters joined the organization, and various members dropped by to connect, and to grab some sugary candy for fuel.