SOCAN program gets mixed reviews
Neck of the Woods guitarist Dave Carr was pumped up for the Vancouver metal band’s scheduled 10-day tour.
The band had taken a year off touring to record The Annex of Ire on Pelagic Records. Reviews were strong and between hitting the road as a support act for Misery Signals in May, there were some key festival gigs lined up in June and July, as well.
“Now the tour has been officially moved to November, which is pretty crazy, and we might not have a gig before that,” said Carr.
“So we’re sitting here trying to figure out what to do to keep relevant and have people stay interested in an album that you recorded a year ago and waited a year to release to go out on the road to make some money.”
On April 2, SOCAN, the management organization with more than 160,000 songwriters, composers, music publishers and visual artists as members, announced a $2-million enhanced emergency program providing royalty advances. Primarily targeting SOCAN songwriters and screen composers who have been directly affected by economic shutdown measures related to the coronavirus pandemic, the program is interest-free for candidates whose individual applications are accepted.
“I work in film part-time besides music, so every domino fell quickly once the announcements went down,” said Carr. “Scrolling through the information, we may be under the line because we do all still have day jobs, although the band is a small business. It’s unfortunate.”
Singer-songwriter Barney Bentall said that for any emerging talent without a back catalogue, most royalty advances wouldn’t amount to much, anyway. Artists like him who came up at a time when people sold records and radio played more of a significant role are in a different place when it comes to career earnings. The SOCAN announcement says “the interest-free advances will be considered based on each member’s most recent earnings history, urgency and need.”
When an entire industry has — for all intents and purposes — evaporated until further notice, those criteria will be difficult to grade.
“Today, to make any kind of a living in music, you need to be out there playing live,” said Bentall. “Maybe this can give some people some help in desperate need. But the need for that amount to keep going up means you’ll need bits and pieces of something like this, something from the government, something from some other program. It’s a complex time.”
Bentall said musicians live on the margins at the best of times, and deciding who gets what first is an enormous challenge. The best you can hope for is that those most in need can get help fast.
“I read the SOCAN statement, and the one thing that rang out loudly was where they make the point that this is something only the government can handle,” said singer-songwriter Geoff Berner.
“And that’s right, because most musicians are looking at loss of all revenues. With no live shows or touring, you aren’t selling albums or merchandise and that, plus the occasional SOCAN cheque, online order and local gig is how you stay afloat.”
The SOCAN allocation for emergency royalty advances is clearly a positive contribute. But $2 million won’t go very far in the present reality.