Describe your background and industry experience, and explain how it will help you contribute to the SOCAN Board of Directors?
I am an active, three-time Canadian Screen Award winning composer originally from Edmonton, who has found his way to Los Angeles via Montreal. I am a board member with the Screen Composers Guild of Canada (SCGC), where I am a former Vice President. I have also sat on advisory or governance boards for organizations like the Banff Centre and Action Canada, as a program advisor for the Canadian Film Centre’s Slaight Music Residency, and sit as an external curator for the National Arts Centre’s National Creation Fund.Â
I have spearheaded a number of projects for the SCGC that have ranged from industrial consultations and advocacy to orchestral reading sessions. Most notably, I led efforts from the SCGC to run with SOCAN a hack-a-thon to try and better the cue sheet process. This process included consultations with composer and other stakeholders to identify challenges and bottlenecks in receiving their performance rights royalties, and then working with SOCAN to come up with new solutions surrounding these issues. I also led and executive produced the website musiccreator.ca (creationdemusique.ca), which serves as a critically acclaimed industry resource that music creators (songwriters, composers, screen composers, lyricists) can refer to help them navigate the business landscape we operate in. These projects have often seen me working in close collaboration with SOCAN leadership, and have lent me a unique view to understand SOCAN’s challenges and positioning on various processes and issues affecting music creators.  Â
In your opinion, what issues will be most important to SOCAN members over the next three years?
The business ecosystem in which music creators exist in is rapidly evolving. For the first time, SOCAN has ingested more digital (streaming) royalties than conventional broadcast royalties, but many of our newer earning members struggle to see SOCAN’s relevance in this new reality.
The onus is on SOCAN to be, and remain a trusted partner on a music creator’s team. In order to do so, they need to address a number of issues. Above all, SOCAN needs to ensure that music creators have the proper tools (that work!) to understand and advocate for the correct and timely payment of their royalties. SOCAN also needs to be ahead of the curve when it comes to understanding disruptive technologies like artificial intelligence and new distribution platforms and their impact on music creators’ livelihoods, but also communicate and educate their members about the real-world implications that these changes will have. Finally, SOCAN needs to continue to leverage its influence to advocate for the interests of its members to decision makers, both at home and abroad. All this, while embracing a philosophy that members’ interests and livelihoods should always be the guiding principle when shaping SOCAN policies and strategies.