To our valued music publisher clients,
CMRRA is very pleased to announce a one year reduction to its online licensing administration fee from 10.5% to 6%. This fee applies to CMRRA’s licensing and royalty administration services related to music download and streaming services, such as iTunes and Spotify. The reduced administration fee will apply to activity starting in third quarter 2016 and scheduled for royalty distribution to CMRRA’s music publisher clients in December 2016.
This fee reduction results from CMRRA’s recent recoupment of its significant investment made in pursuing the certification of online music tariffs since 2004. The Copyright Board of Canada sets the legal royalty rates and administrative provisions for different uses of music in Canada, following a formal interrogatory process and hearing in which it considers legal and economic evidence from a variety of experts from each of the parties. This investment in tariffs by CMRRA has resulted in some of the highest online royalty rates in the world to the benefit of its music publisher clients.
Since the launch of the first online music service in Canada in 2003, CMRRA, via its joint venture CMRRA-SODRAC Inc. (CSI), has received complete usage data from its many online music licensees. This data has given CMRRA a complete picture of the online music market in Canada and has allowed it to build a vast database of matched sound recording and musical work information. This historical usage data allows CMRRA to quickly and easily invoice, collect and distribute past royalties earmarked for newly represented or newly registered copyright ownership shares. CMRRA’s expansive database, coupled with its sophisticated data matching routines and cloud computing system, allow the prompt identification of copyrighted works through the vast number of tracks offered by the many online music services that do business in Canada.
CMRRA is Canada’s largest and oldest reproduction rights agency. Our repertoire comprises the vast majority of songs recorded, downloaded and streamed in Canada. Affiliation with CMRRA is open to all rights owners, including music publishers, rights administrators and individual songwriters who have not entered into a music publishing agreement with a third party.
