Canada's rights society SOCAN has reported an increase in revenue of 8% year on year, with income from streaming booming by more than 460%.
In 2016, the Toronto-based organisation posted revenues of CA$330 million with record distributions to songwriters and publishing members of CA$285 million. Domestic revenue reached CA$265 million, up approximately 8%, "a new high for SOCAN," according to the society, while royalties from the use of SOCAN's repertoire outside Canada resulted in revenues of CA$66 million, an increase of 30% from only three years ago. Streaming revenues jumped to approximately CA$13 million, up 460% from 2015.
This growth in revenues reflects the unprecedented success of Canadian artists on the world stage. SOCAN CEO Eric Baptiste singled out the successes of such Canadian creators as The Weeknd, Drake, Alessia Cara, Johnny Reid, Alex Cuba, Arcade Fire, Shawn Mendes, Nineteen85, Simon Wilcox, Lesley Barber, the Strumbellas, Cœur de pirate, Kaytranada, Louis-Jean Cormier, Tanya Tagaq, Cristobal Tapia de Veer, Brett Kissel, Alex Nevsky, Keith Power, among others.
Commenting on the financial results, Baptiste said: "SOCAN's work to lead the global transformation of music rights continues, benefitting music creators and publishers even more in terms of royalties identified, collected, and distributed in Canada and worldwide. Our efforts to improve our technology, partnerships and alliances, to be more accurate, more comprehensive, and faster are paying off for our members with new revenue and distribution records across-the-board in 2016."
Last year was marked by the strategic acquisitions of rights platform Audiam and database MediaNet, which SOCAN said are bringing "benefits in terms of new services, even better data-matching and leading-edge technology."
