{"id":255012,"date":"2026-04-14T12:02:47","date_gmt":"2026-04-14T11:02:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.musicbusinessworldwide.com\/?p=255012"},"modified":"2026-04-14T12:03:33","modified_gmt":"2026-04-14T11:03:33","slug":"canadas-socan-paid-out-usd-366m-to-rightsholders-in-2025-warns-ai-is-placing-mounting-pressure-on-livelihoods","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.musicbusinessworldwide.com\/canadas-socan-paid-out-usd-366m-to-rightsholders-in-2025-warns-ai-is-placing-mounting-pressure-on-livelihoods\/","title":{"rendered":"Canada’s SOCAN paid out USD $366m to rightsholders in 2025, warns AI is ‘placing mounting pressure’ on livelihoods"},"content":{"rendered":"

Canadian performing rights society SOCAN generated revenues of CAD $587.1 million ($420m) in 2025, up 5%<\/span> compared with 2024.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s according to the society\u2019s 2025 financial results published April 8, which showed that digital streaming continued to drive growth across the domestic market.<\/p>\n

SOCAN distributed CAD $511.9 million<\/b> ($366m) in royalties to members during the year, just below the CAD $512.4 million<\/b>\u00a0distributed in 2024.<\/p>\n

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Of the total, CAD $183.8 million<\/b> ($131m) went to rightsholders for music used within Canada, CAD<\/b> $126 million<\/b> ($90m) came from international performing rights, and CAD $11.8 million <\/b>($8.4m) from reproduction rights.<\/p>\n

Revenue from music used in Canada climbed CAD $23.9 million <\/b>($17.1m) to CAD $445.5 million <\/b>($319m), with digital sources accounting for CAD $232.8 million<\/b> ($166m) of that total, up 11.5%<\/span> YoY<\/span><\/b>.<\/p>\n

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Elsewhere, General Licensing and concert revenue rose 16.1%<\/b><\/span>. International revenue, reflecting demand for Canadian music abroad, grew CAD $3.9 million <\/b><\/span>($2.8m) to CAD $141.7 million<\/b> ($101m).<\/p>\n

SOCAN used the announcement to stress how \u201cAI is placing mounting pressure on music rights and the livelihoods of music creators.\u201d<\/p>\n

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A 2025 survey conducted by SOCAN and Pollara<\/b> found that 81%<\/b> of Canadians believe supporting local music creators is essential to the future of Canadian culture.<\/p>\n

SOCAN says it has mobilized a national campaign that generated 8,700<\/b> letters to government urging policymakers to block any exception that would allow unlicensed use of music for AI training purposes.<\/p>\n

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\u201cThere is an urgent need for modern protections rooted in consent, credit and compensation, to provide songwriters and composers with a reliable foundation from which to support their families and continue making music.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jennifer<\/b> Brown, SOCAN<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

The lobbying has reached Canadian Prime Minister Mark<\/b> Carney<\/b>, with SOCAN CEO Jennifer<\/b> Brown<\/b> and CISAC President Bj\u00f6rn<\/b> Ulvaeus<\/b> meeting with Carney to discuss protecting human creativity in the age of AI.<\/p>\n

Brown <\/b>said: \u201cSOCAN\u2019s financial results show increased revenues but we all need to acknowledge that Canadian songwriters and composers are living a different reality.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\u201cThere is an urgent need for modern protections rooted in consent, credit and compensation, to provide songwriters and composers with a reliable foundation from which to support their families and continue making music.\u201d<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, SOCAN’s operating expenses rose alongside its revenue, with the expense-to-revenue ratio reaching 13.4% <\/b>in 2025. The organization attributed the increase to investment in enterprise technology initiatives and expanded educational and career development programs for members.<\/p>\n

In October 2025, SOCAN, alongside US PROs ASCAP<\/strong> and BMI<\/strong>, announced an alignment<\/a>\u00a0of their AI registration policies. The organizations said they will now accept registrations for musical works that are partially generated using artificial intelligence.<\/p>\n

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All CAD-USD conversions made at the average annual exchange rate for 2025 rate as published by the IRS.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Canadian performing rights society SOCAN generated revenues of CAD $587.1 million ($420m) in 2025, up 5% compared with 2024.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":38,"featured_media":94294,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[557],"class_list":["post-255012","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-socan"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.musicbusinessworldwide.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/255012","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.musicbusinessworldwide.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.musicbusinessworldwide.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.musicbusinessworldwide.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/38"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.musicbusinessworldwide.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=255012"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/www.musicbusinessworldwide.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/255012\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":255037,"href":"https:\/\/www.musicbusinessworldwide.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/255012\/revisions\/255037"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.musicbusinessworldwide.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/94294"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.musicbusinessworldwide.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=255012"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.musicbusinessworldwide.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=255012"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.musicbusinessworldwide.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=255012"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}