Canadian music licesning company Re:Sound Music has filed a tariff proposal (Tariff 8B) which would apply to semi-interactive webcasting services with the Copyright Board of Canada.
Re:Sound says the proposal seeks to establish royalties for the use of music in semi-interactive webcasts in line with its mandate to obtain fair compensation for artists and record companies.
Re:Sound Music Licensing Company, a Canadian not-for-profit, licenses recorded music for public performance, broadcast and new media. All of the money collected by Re:Sound is distributed to its members, representing thousands of artists and record companies - minus its actual costs.
The company notes that currently, semi-interactive webcasts, which include services relatively new to Canada such as Slacker and last.fm, permit listeners to choose genre and artist preferences, but not individual songs.
Re:Sound (formerly NRCC) filed a tariff proposal in 2008 to cover non-interactive simulcasting and webcasting (Tariff 8A).
"The proposed new tariff applies to a growing category of online music consumption," said Re:Sound President Ian MacKay. "At Re:Sound we believe in fostering innovation in the online sector, and once certified, the tariff will provide semi-interactive services with certainty as to what they have to pay for the rights administered by Re:Sound on behalf of thousands of artists and record labels."
Online music services would only require a single licence from Re:Sound for these rights, rather than separate licences from each record company and artist, as at present.
"Collective management of these rights makes sense both for music creators, by lowering transaction costs, and music users, by providing predictability and simplicity," MacKay said.
The royalty rates and structures proposed in Re:Sound Tariff 8B are consistent with rates already established in other jurisdictions.
Online music tariffs have previously been certified in Canada and several other countries.
This includes SOCAN (Society of Composers, Authors and Music Publishers of Canada) Tariff 22A, which was certified by the Copyright Board in 2009. Royalties collected under SOCAN tariffs, which are separate from Re:Sound tariffs, are distributed to songwriters and music publishers.
Royalties collected under Re:Sound's tariffs are distributed to artists and record companies.
Details on the proposed royalty rates under Tariff 8B can be found at http://cb-cda.gc.ca/tariffstarifs/ proposed-proposes/music-musique-e.html. The proposal includes a requirement for online music services to implement effective measures to prevent stream ripping.
The proposed tariff was submitted to the Copyright Board on March 31, 2010, and would apply to the years 2011 and 2012.
Created in 1997 (as NRCC), Re:Sound member organizations are AFM, ACTRA RACS, ArtistI, AVLA and SOPROQ. For more information, visit www.resound.ca