Describe your background and industry experience, and explain how it will help you contribute to the SOCAN Board of Directors?
Multifaceted songwriter-composer Stan Meissner’s career includes hits internationally as well as in both English and French Canada. Meissner has been a professional songwriter/composer for several decades, under long-running contracts with BMG Music Publishing, Warner-Chappell and Irving/Almo/Universal Music and has written for many international acts including Céline Dion, Lara Fabian, Shania Twain, LeeAnn Womack, Eddie Money, Farmer’s Daughter, Ricochet, Rita Coolidge, BJ Thomas, Lee Aaron and many more. As a recording artist, he released three solo albums on A&M and Duke Street/Universal garnering several top 10 hits in Canada.
Meissner has also written music for several TV shows and films including A&E’s Biography, Berenstain Bears, Timothy Goes to School and Cottage Life TV as well as contributing songs and source music to Beverly Hills 90210, Forever Knight, My Secret Identity as well as the Friday the 13th series and films among many other AV works. Stan’s work has earned him numerous gold and multi-platinum records, as well as a Gemini Award, JUNO nominations, Canadian Music Publishers Association Award, British Columbia Country Music Association “Songwriter of the Year” Award, as well as SOCAN #1 and Classic awards.
As the President of the Board of Directors of SOCAN (2012–2018), Chair of the Risk and Audit Committee (2018–2024), Chair of the Canadian Songwriters Hall of Fame (2012–2024), a member of the International CIAM Executive Committee (2012–2024), Treasurer of SOCAN (2003–2012), President of the SOCAN Foundation (2006–2012) and President of the Songwriters Association of Canada (2000–2006), Stan has been very active in the songwriting community, working as a tireless advocate to further a more positive environment for creators in Canada and around the world.
Given the abundance of these experiences, I feel I have much to contribute for the upcoming term.
In your opinion, what issues will be most important to SOCAN members over the next three years?
Over the last couple of decades, our rights environment has been continually challenged and has been facing threats that could not have been imagined through most of the 100 plus years of collective management history. The current state of remuneration for the copyright side of music on streaming platforms is woefully inadequate and is a pale comparison to royalties that existed in traditional models for previous decades.
Additionally, the new threats of AI to the creative industries are at the forefront of current concerns, and positioning ourselves and our rights to be fairly compensated as we look forward, is of the utmost importance. Ensuring fair models of remuneration in the current and foreseeable future will be imperative throughout the next few years, and the clarification and even the creation of new rights, for new kinds of uses, will reverberate for decades to come.
Within SOCAN, we must also focus on our own internal efficiencies and member services, ensuring fast and efficient collections from traditional media and digital services in order to make precise and reliable payments to rights holders.
Now, more than ever, we need knowledgeable and informed directors to guide SOCAN through these unprecedented changing times.