Photo by Brad Ardley. Adam Fujiki (centre), with/avec SOCAN's Aidan D’Aoust (left/gauche) and/et Melissa Cameron-Passley (right/droite)/de la SOCAN.

SOCAN presents two No. 1 Song Awards to Universal Music Publishing Canada

Story by Howard Druckman | Wednesday July 25th, 2018

SOCAN presented two No. 1 Song Awards to Universal Music Publishing Canada at the SOCAN Toronto offices, on July 12, 2018 for publishing a pair of chart-topping hits by Shawn Mendes.

SOCAN A&R Representatives Aidan D’Aoust and Melissa Cameron-Passley presented Universal’s Adam Fujiki with awards for publishing Mendes’ “Mercy,” which topped the Billboard Mainstream Top 40 on Nov. 28, 2016, and “There’s Nothing Holding Me Back,” which peaked on the same chart on Aug. 26, 2017, as well as the Nielsen BDS Hot AC Chart on July 31, 2017.

“Mercy” was co-written by SOCAN member Mendes, and Teddy Geiger, Ilsey Juber, and Danny Parker (all BMI), while “There’s Nothing Holding Me Back” was co-written by Mendes with SOCAN member Geoffrey Warburton, Geiger, and Scott Friedman (BMI). Both songs are co-published by Universal Music Publishing Canada and Sony/ATV Music Publishing Canada.

SOCAN congratulates Adam Fujiki and Universal Music Publishing Canada on these great successes!

SOCAN members! Monitor your royalties better

Story by Howard Druckman | Monday July 30th, 2018

Attention SOCAN members! By introducing new features to its high-quality, flexible analytics tool, Royalty Guru, SOCAN has made it even faster and easier for you to assess and monitor your royalties. Designed specifically for songwriters, composers and music publishers, Royalty Guru’s analytics capabilities allow you to visualize your data in a variety of easy-to-use ways, to help you manage your business and career in music.

And now SOCAN has made it even easier to navigate, with a single sign-on, to which you can conveniently link from your SOCAN member account. We’ve also ensured that you’ll experience even faster load times. And we’ve provided some new forecasting tools that allow you to look at historical performance data, identify trends, and – using that intelligence – provide a general idea of future performance. No forecasting tool is perfect, of course, but we’re always working to create and improve tools to help you do business better.

SOCAN was the first major performing rights organization in North America to offer such a royalty-analysis business intelligence tool to you, our members. SOCAN’s exclusive Royalty Guru services enable you to better understand the trends in royalties earned when your music is played live, on radio, on television and streamed online. The tool simplifies complicated royalty analysis, doing in seconds what otherwise would take hours, days or even weeks to determine, using complicated spreadsheets.

Royalty Guru is available free to SOCAN members, and we’ll continue to maintain, develop, and enhance it going forward, with our members’ needs in mind.

Photo by Grant W. Martin Photography

Leonard Cohen, Andy Kim, Col. Chris Hadfield to be inducted into Canada’s Walk of Fame

Story by Howard Druckman | Monday July 23rd, 2018

The late Leonard Cohen, one of the world’s most iconic singer-songwriters, poets, and novelists – whose classic songs include “Suzanne,” “Bird on a Wire” and “Hallelujah” – is among the 10 honourees who’ll be inducted into Canada’s Walk of Fame on Dec. 1, 2018, at the Sony Centre for the Performing Arts, in Toronto.

At the same awards show – the 20th annual edition of the event – Cohen’s fellow SOCAN members Andy Kim and Col. Chris Hadfield will also be inducted into the Walk of Fame. Kim, to be recognized in the Arts and Entertainment category, is an award-winning singer-songwriter whose career has flourished for 50 years. He’s best known for hits including “Baby, I Love You,” “Sugar Sugar,” and “Rock Me Gently,” and has sold more than 30 million records. Hadfield, to be honoured in the Science and Technology field, is the first Canadian to walk in space, the first Canadian spaceship commander, a New York Times bestselling author, YouTube sensation, renowned speaker, and singer-songwriter.

The other seven Walk of Fame honourees for 2018 are:

  • Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir (Sports and Athletics)
  • Andrea Martin (Arts and Entertainment)
  • Dr. Joanne Liu (Philanthropy and Humanities)
  • Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg (Arts and Entertainment)
  • Jimmy Pattison (Business and Entrepreneurship)

The awards show will be followed by a gala celebration at the Fairmont Royal York, and the show will air on CTV in December 2018. SOCAN members previously inducted include Stompin’ Tom Connors, Michael Bublé, Rush, Sarah McLachlan, Blue Rodeo, The Tragically Hip, Joni Mitchell, Gordon Lightfoot, Nickelback, and k.d. lang.