SACEM and SOCAN Sign an Unprecedented Transatlantic Agreement

          - SACEM receives international mandate from music rights organization, SOCAN, to manage rights in Europe
          - SACEM will be representing the European licensing and processing sales of a North American music rights organization
          - SOCAN is the first North American MRO to mandate a European collective society

          Sacem, the French authors' rights society, and SOCAN, the Society of Composers Authors & Music Publishers of Canada, announce today the signature of an agreement entrusting Sacem to administer and collect towards multi territorial DSPs in Europe the performing rights of the more than 135,000 member creators and music publishers of the Canadian Society.

          The deal is a first, as Sacem will be the first society in Europe assigned to represent the digital rights of a North American music rights organization in pan-European licences, adding to the scale of the repertoire Sacem already represents with its 157,000 creators and publishers or through pre-existing mandates such as UMPI or Wixen Publishing. This agreement will have immediate benefits for SOCAN members as it will provide one unique point of collection and therefore transparency, velocity and efficiency in the management of their rights.

          Sacem is a founder member of Armonia, the first European online music licensing hub, and the SOCAN/Sacem mandate will be handled through the Armonia platform. In that framework, SOCAN will join the Armonia community and directly benefit from the simplicity to negotiate with one voice with digital service providers and the processing services which provide automated data cleansing and enrichment, leading to more accurate identification of works and BI tools.

          Jean-Noel Tronc, CEO of Sacem, comments: "We are very happy with SOCAN's decision, which illustrates our commitment to improve efficiency in the digital environment for fair and transparent online revenues to songwriters, composers and music publishers. The Sacem/SOCAN agreement will enhance the Armonia community, for the first time extending beyond Europe."

          Eric Baptiste, CEO of SOCAN, comments: "This agreement means that SOCAN's more than 135,000 members will benefit greatly from further improved tracking of royalties in the burgeoning European music market. Thanks to this partnership, we look forward to bringing even better returns for Canada's songwriters, composers and music publishers, allowing us to participate even more deeply in the emerging global marketplace."

          About Sacem

           http://www.sacem.fr/en

          The Society of Authors, Composers and Publishers of Music (Sacem) aims to represent and defend its members' interests in view of promoting musical creation in all its forms.Its key mission is to collect royalties and distribute them to authors, composers and publishers whose works are disseminated or reproduced. In 2015, Sacem distributed royalties to 293,000 authors, composers and publishers worldwide for more than 2 million works.

          About SOCAN

           http://www.socan.ca

          SOCAN is a member-based organization that represents the Canadian performing rights of more than four-million Canadian and international music creators and publishers

          Contacts
          SACEM
          Sandra Valerii
          Mob : +337-84-37-65-75
           sandra.valerii@sacem.fr
         
          Anna Younger
          Instinctif Partners
          Tel : +44(0)207-457-2020
         
          SOCAN
          Andrew Berthoff
          +1-416-442-3836
           berthoffa@socan.ca  

           Source: SACEM