Describe your background and industry experience, and explain how it will help you contribute to the SOCAN Board of Directors?
Recipient of multiple SOCAN Awards in the Television Music category, Laurent Guardo has been working in this field for more than 30 years.
His principal credits are with CBC/Radio-Canada and RDI. For several years, he composed nearly all of the music for the news programs on both networks.
In the field of song, he composed and produced the music for three albums performed by Daniel Lavoie. He also wrote the lyrics for the first, “La Licorne Captive.”
After several years serving on the boards of SODRAC and SPACQ, where he learned a great deal, he now wishes to continue putting the benefit of his experience at the service of all creators working in his field, with the goal of improving the conditions under which works are exploited and the collection of copyright royalties. His hands-on experience in the fields of screen composing and songwriting makes him a passionate advocate for your interests.
In your opinion, what issues will be most important to SOCAN members over the next three years?
There is no shortage of challenges when it comes to enabling creators to make a living from their art. We must find new solutions so that online music platforms can generate meaningful revenue for those who create the content. Our solutions must be realistic, thoughtful, and appealing. Lobbying is essential to encourage these platforms to rethink their distribution algorithms and to add the option for users to purchase works via download. The difference between three thousandths of a cent and ten cents is a ratio of 3,000. In other words, streaming has reduced our revenues by at least a factor of 3,000. It is imperative to convince these platforms to add a “buy it now” button to substantially improve the situation, and to revise per user algorithms to allow for fairer distributions. We must also continue working to ensure that our Francophone repertoire finds new avenues of dissemination so that it may regain the prominence it deserves. Of course, artificial intelligence places us in the midst of an infinite range of dilemmas and challenges that must be examined with the utmost care, in order to find concrete solutions and prevent the extinction of our art.