Music licensing agency targets Valemount Farmer’s Market
By Rachel Fraser
When Korie Marshall, volunteer Market Manager of the Valemount Farmers Market, received an email informing her that her event was unlicensed for live music performances, she was confused. For the last couple of years, the Farmer’s Market has allowed buskers to play if they want to, but the market doesn’t coordinate a busking station or schedule, and like the rest of the volunteers who facilitate the market, buskers aren’t paid to perform.
“Whoever stops by and pulls out a guitar, they’re certainly welcome to,” she said.
Multiple members of the BC Farmers Market Association had received similar notices saying that they don’t appear to be up to date with licensing their music use, and many had questions.
“Some larger organizations or events already knew about it, of course, and were already licensed,” she said.
Marshall followed up with the agent who contacted her, from an organization called Entandem. Entandem is responsible for administering licenses to businesses and events and collecting the fees for SOCAN and Re:Sound, based on the tariffs that those organizations are authorized to collect by the Copyright Board, which is itself mandated by Canada’s Copyright Act.
How licensing works
Essentially, anywhere music is played, including all retail stores or restaurants who play recorded background music, are required by the provisions of the Act to be licensed through Entandem.
While SOCAN (Society of Composers, Authors, and Music Publishers of Canada) represents music creators, and Re:Sound represents recording artists and performers, both distribute royalties to their members from fees Entandem collects.
If it sounds complicated, that’s because it is. Entandem’s role is to license businesses and event venues according to 47 different tariffs that may be applicable, according to an informational conversation with an Entandem agent not authorized to speak on behalf of the organization.
Entandem did not return the Goat’s repeated requests for comment.
Entandem markets itself on its website and in its correspondence as making the licensing process “accessible, transparent and simple,” but Marshall said the process was anything but clear to her.
“So I wasn’t very open to learning about the process,” she said. “It just felt like someone else sticking out a hand to grab money we don’t have.”
Marshall said she supports the idea of artists getting paid when their work is used, but that the agent’s aggressive responses made it feel like the market was being bullied or scammed.
According to an email Marshall shared with the Goat, the minimum flat fee for an annual license would be $60, plus tax. The market would be required to fill out a form detailing the number of performances and the amount paid to performers, which would dictate the licensing fee applied. Because buskers aren’t paid to perform at the market, only the minimum fee would apply. Musicians playing their own original music would still be subject to royalties.
“Again,” the email stated, “it is the songs we license, not the performers, so it would make no difference whether the performers are playing their own or cover songs.”
Exceptions to the rule
If the market could prove, by submitting set lists of performances, that all music played was in the public domain, for example classical works or folk standards whose last surviving author died more than 70 years ago, they could be exempt, although a new arrangement of a public domain song can also be protected by copyright.
Canada’s Copyright Act allows for certain exemptions, such as for charitable organizations where the performance is for charitable purposes, and also for certain agricultural events.
According to the agent the Goat spoke to, organizations seeking an exemption could submit an extensive questionnaire, and eligibility is determined on a case-by-case basis. The process is onerous, and he concluded that it’s preferable to pay a small fee to ensure compliance than to go through the hassle.
Neither this form, nor the possibility of exemption were offered to the farmer’s market by the agent, Marshall said.
How artists get paid
Amy Braun, one half of the local duo Half/Asian with Amy the CODA — professional musicians and recording artists who are members of SOCAN — said that they receive royalties when they submit paperwork to SOCAN after a performance, but that they often don’t, to avoid conflict with venues that are not licensed. This process is to receive royalties to perform songs which they themselves hold the rights to, on performances where they are often also paid to perform by the venue or event.
For music creators to receive royalties for their songs being performed by other musicians, SOCAN posts notice of licensed performances to its website, for its members to view and claim money owed them, according to the Entandem agent the Goat spoke to. As for what copyrighted content a licensed performance might contain, it’s primarily dependent on the covering musicians to self-report by providing setlists of their performances to SOCAN.
The covering musicians are not responsible for any fees, and can legally play whatever they want, he said. Fees are only charged to the venues or event coordinators, even though they are not responsible to submit any program or setlist information, or anything else that indicates what copyrighted material may have been used in the performance.
Reporting requirements
Valemount Arts and Cultural Society, an organization which hosts and pays musicians as part of their annual theatre seasons, pays Entandem annual licensing fees. According to bookkeeper Sharon Ireland, in order for their fees to be calculated, they have to submit complex accounting to Entandem, including all varieties of ticket sales and the amounts paid to performers. She said a few of the volunteers struggled between them to figure out what the organization wanted to see in the accounting.
“But it’s really ridiculous to do this for the Farmers Market,” Ireland said. “You’ve got a bunch of Oldtimers who are standing around playing fiddle songs from 150 years ago! I don’t think we’re playing royalties on those anymore.”
Pete Pearson, President of the Valemount Legion, which hosts open mic nights and karaoke, as well as occasional touring musicians and DJs, said he found the licensing process straight-forward and easy to deal with.
For the Valemount Farmer’s Market, which only has an annual operating budget of approximately $1200, an amount that mostly goes to insurance and some local food security objectives, the “small” fee of $62, plus the additional volunteer time to administer, is a big deterrent to hosting music at all. Marshall said they’d like to host music in a more official capacity and promote it for musicians who may want the experience or exposure, but now that the Entandem agent is following the market on Facebook, she doesn’t want the headache.
“He looked up our Facebook page and said, ‘Oh it looks like you have musicians from your Facebook profile’ and I said, ‘Oh my God, you found a photo from three years ago!’”
