Date July 14 2016

To: NCRA Members and C/C Radio Stations
Re: SOCAN Changes in reporting practice

Dear Members and C/C Radio Stations in Canada

The National Campus and Community Radio Association (NCRA/ANREC) is proud to announce that on-going discussions with our partners at SOCAN have resulted in changes to the reporting requirements for SOCAN surveys of broadcast content.

As of June 27th, all Campus and Community Radio Stations can remove the Composers and Time (start and length) from their SOCAN survey reports. This means, that with a slight adjustment to the logs you prepare for the CRTC, you can now submit a CRTC log as a SOCAN log. This would also cover any Re:Sound reporting in the future (if requested by Re:Sound). As a result, will be referred to as an “Industry Log”.

If you wish to continue to submit survey reports to SOCAN using the old survey report format you may continue to do so, but there is no penalty or loss for stations or artists using the new reduced logging requirements.

IMPORTANT NOTE: SOCAN does require you to indicate if you are using a THEME or BACKGROUND music in your reporting system, including the length of the song, whereas the CRTC does not. Therefore, if you plan to submit your CRTC logs to SOCAN as Industry Logs, you will need to add a field to indicate when musical selections are Theme/Background in those logs (And make sure you submit the length of a song if it is a Theme/Background to SOCAN).

A theme is usually used at the beginning to open, or at the end to close the show. Sometimes, radio stations may use a special music in the background while the host is talking. This music, if used, is identified as Background music and should be reported as well.

We request the radio stations to identify correctly the usage (Theme, Background or Feature (leave as Blank)) of the songs broadcasted so that the royalties are paid according to their usage.

Themes and Background music are generally short in duration and we calculate their royalties based on every second played. This is why we ask the station to provide the duration used so that it is calculated correctly. All other songs are assumed to be played in its full entirety, hence no longer the need to write song length

Please see appendix A and B (attached) for additional information about logs from the Regulatory Support Guide 2.1.1 (available for members in the members-only section of the NCRA website), and an example of an "Industry Log" that meets the requirements of the new reporting requirements for both SOCAN and the CRTC.

The NCRA, along with Association des Radiodiffuseurs Communautaires du Québec, and Alliance des Radios Communautaires du Canada, is thrilled to have worked with SOCAN, to make it easier for our members to submit their reports, AND further support the local, and national Canadian music industry.

Barry Rooke
NCRA Executive Director