Describe your background and industry experience, and explain how it will help you contribute to the SOCAN Board of Directors?
Marc Ouellette holds a music composition degree from McGill University and underwent further training with Ennio Morricone in Italy. Dividing his time between composing, producing and conducting in many musical genres, he has been nominated and won different distinctions such as SOCAN, Gemini and ADISQ awards. Over the past twenty-five years, Marc has written original music for a variety of projects ranging from movies (Deadly Isolation; 2005, When We Were Boys; 2013, Ambert Alert; 2016), children television series (Mystery Hunters; 2002-2009), entertainment and circus-oriented shows (Azul at SeaWorld of San Antonio; 2009-2018), and multimedia presentations (summer and winter Sound & Light on Ottawa’s Parliament Hill; 2010 to date) to name a few. As arranger, producer and conductor, he has contributed to concerts and recordings featuring such diverse artists and groups as Isabelle Boulay (Mieux qu’ici bas; 2000), Pierre Lapointe (La forêt des mal-aimés; 2007), Roch Voisine (Duophonique; 2013), The Tea Party (tours across Canada; 2002 and Australia; 2017) and the Montreal Symphony Orchestra.
Marc began his involvement for the advocacy of music right holders in the mid 1990’s and served as board member of the Société professionnelle des auteurs et compositeurs du Québec (SPACQ), la Société du droit de reproduction des auteurs, compositeurs et éditeurs du Canada (SODRAC) and was respectively President of both of them. He also served as President of the SOCAN Foundation and has been President and Chairman of the SOCAN board since 2018.
After several years on the Board of Directors, I hope to continue to contribute my opinions and ideas on how the SOCAN of tomorrow should operate. Collectively, this Board and Chief Executive Officer Jennifer Brown have successfully made the necessary structural changes to the new governance and internal operations of our company. I have had the honour of serving as President and Chair of this board since 2018 and SOCAN is now fully engaged to face the next coming storm: Artificial Intelligence. Nothing can ever be taken for granted and the challenges facing all SOCAN members are very real. Our rights must be vigorously defended at all times as business models are now seriously changing in our industry. As copyright holders and SOCAN board members, we also have the important and critical responsibility to continue educating newer generations of creators about the fragile philosophy of copyright collective management and its associated governance. The next term of the SOCAN Board of Directors will be devoted to the renewal of our strategic plan as well as addressing the pressing challenges that we all face with Artificial Intelligence.
In your opinion, what issues will be most important to SOCAN members over the next three years?
SOCAN has already been facing major upheavals in music consumption for several years now. Among the important issues that the next Board of Directors will continue to tackle is the access to reliable and complete data on members’ works, a functional and efficient members’ portal that allows transparent consultation of this data, better administration of our musical performing and reproduction rights, a change in the conditions favoring some of our members to flee the collective management of copyrights and the rise of artificial intelligence in our musical industry. Much of SOCAN’s strength lies in the representational strength of its repertoire, its catalogue of works. If it were to melt away substantially, the whole principle of collective management would be jeopardized. We must take the necessary steps to continue to transform SOCAN back into a modern, strong and flexible society in the eyes of its members and all players in the global music industry.