SOCAN welcomes confirmation today from Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Minister of Canadian Heritage Steven Guilbeault that royalty payments will not prevent creators from qualifying for benefits under the Canada Emergency Response Benefit (CERB).

SOCAN rights holders receive quarterly payments for performing and reproduction rights. These include songwriters, composers and music publishers from all of Canada as well as visual artists for exhibition and reproduction rights.

“We were hearing from our members daily about their concerns due to the COVID-19 crisis, and we in turn were in contact with Minister Guilbeault’s office daily,” said Interim CEO Jennifer Brown. “We thank them for their attention to this issue and providing some certainty for our members in an uncertain time.

“As the Prime Minister noted in his remarks, our creators are providing bright spots for Canadians in a difficult time, so it’s important to ensure that those same creators can continue to provide for themselves and their families.”



Living in self-isolation and quarantine during the COVID-19 pandemic can take a massive toll on your creative process and output. Not being able to go into a studio with your fellow writers, producers, and artists can have a serious impact on your business and career. In an effort to help connect our members to one another and subsequently stimulate creativity, the growth of new creative partnerships, and hopefully commercial activity down the road, SOCAN has taken its Song Camp Mondays online. We’ll be facilitating multiple virtual songwriting sessions per week (as opposed to our previous one-every-two-weeks, in-person version) across the country, and in the U.S., based on applicant submissions.

These Virtual Song Camp Monday sessions – each one a full-day co-writing session connecting three SOCAN members at a time – will bring together participants from across North America, via online meeting platforms, from the comfort of their own homes and/or home studios, during the current period of social isolation. The challenge is to complete one new song by the end of the day.

Three songwriter applicants will be selected and connected for each of the several virtual co-writing sessions being held every  week. Participants for the sessions are selected at random from all submissions and notified one to two weeks before each session. Once your submission has been received, it remains on file throughout the calendar year.

Each session will run from the morning through the afternoon (specific times TBD, depending on the writers’ time zones). A “SOCAN 101” session will be hosted virtually by one of our SOCAN A&R representatives at some point during the session, in order to help explain how to register the co-written song with SOCAN, and all the ways to get paid!

Please submit your application via the online form, here.



Songwriters from across the province are encouraged to send in their applications for the Folk Music Ontario 2020 Songs From The Heart Awards!

The awards celebrate songwriters in seven categories, and recognizes winners with a $100 FMO credit that can be used to cover membership fees, award application fees, conference registrations, and advertising with FMO.

Apply now in one of seven categories:

  • Blues
  • Children’s Music
  • Global Folk
  • Instrumental Music
  • Political
  • Roots Music
  • Singer-Songwriter

Applications are open until April 30, and you can apply here.