If you are an aspiring musician, then one of your biggest dreams is probably to get paid for your music. And to be fair, you deserve to be paid every time your music is being played. It’s your right. However, many musicians don’t really know how to begin to monetize their work. That’s where SOCAN comes in. 

SOCAN stands for Society of Composers, Authors and Music Publishers of Canada. Basically, it is an organization that manages published music in Canada. Its mission is to make sure that music creators and publishers get compensated for their works. So if your music is being used in a TV show, or being sung at a concert by other artists, SOCAN will make sure that they have the proper license, and that you are paid accordingly. That is why if you are a Canadian-based musician, being a SOCAN member is important.

(SOCAN Music / Facebook)

So, how do you get started with SOCAN? Well, the first thing you have to do is to become a member. You can sign up on its website. There is no registration fee, however, there are some criteria that you have to meet to be eligible. First, you must be a music composer, songwriter, producer, or lyricist. And second, you must have created a musical work or you are part of a musical work that has been published by a music publisher, or recorded, or performed in public. Once you create an account, you can sign up for your reproduction rights with SOCAN. That means that every time your music is being used in the media, streamed on the internet, or being sold in the form of CD or vinyl, SOCAN will be the one negotiating the licensing deal. This is such a sweet arrangement, because now you can focus more on your music rather than all of this administrative work.

Okay, you are now a SOCAN member. Now what? Well you should register your music every time you release a new single or an album. This way, SOCAN will have your music in its system and will be able to track down the use of it in public. SOCAN will also collect all the royalties from each use, and send them to you once every three months. 

(freestocks-photos / Pixabay)

There are other advantages from signing up with SOCAN. Having your work registered to SOCAN makes it easier for people to find you. For example, if a band really wants to cover your song for their new single and they know that you are registered to SOCAN, they can just go straight there and get the license easily. Another benefit is when you collaborate with other artists when writing a song. Based on the information that you gave, SOCAN will be able to calculate how much each person gets.

So if you want to start your music career and want to get paid, start by joining SOCAN. Who knows, maybe your song will become part of a new Tiktok trend. And if that happens, then you can expect a big fat check from SOCAN in your mailbox pretty soon.