Music Levy

Here in Canada, the music industry lobbied hard to get a levy enforced on all blank media. For every CD-R and CD-RW that's sold, there's an extra $0.21 that's tacked on. Buy yourself an MP3 player and you're looking to pay anywhere from $2 - $25 dependent on the amount of on board memory.

Since 1999 this money has been pooling in the coffers of the CPCC. To date, the organization has collected over $87 million dollars. That should be quite a boon to Canada's 4,500 performers, composers and lyricists, coming to about $20,000 per artist.

Wow. Seems like a good time to be a performing artist in Canada... or so you'd think.

First, CPCC has their operating expenses. After all, they have to continually lobby the government to increase those levies, investigate and take to court anyone who may have avoided the levy. Oh - and don't forget the salaries of the CPCC staff and PR firm. That's $9 million. Oh - and up until this past year, CPCC didn't really know how it was going to distribute all this money that it's been holding on to. So of the cash collected, only $28 million has actually been paid out.

But still. That's like, $6000 per artist. Not bad. Not bad at all. Except...

CPCC doesn't actually pay the money to artists directly, but instead routes the money through about a dozen artist collectives. Now, of course, each of these organizations have their own costs and expenditures. SOCAN - just one of the organizations involved - lists their overhead as being about 18%. So of the $28 million that actually has made it out into the hands of these collectives, you can say farewell to another $5 million.

Okay - so $5000 will still reach our plucky little Musician. However...

The music publishers and record companies, being listed as the copyright owners of much of the music get their cut first. Their take amounts to about 75% - or another $17 million.

And before you say 'ah, but that leaves $1,000 in the hands of our Musician', I should point out that the way these organizations distribute royalties is based, not upon actual performances but on a survey of radio and television stations. Because, what people are burning to CDs and copying to their MP3 players is -of course- directly reflected by what's playing on the radio. In all likelihood, the majority of the funds are going to

So of the $87 million that's been paid in levies for media, about $14 million has gone to bureaucrats, lawyers and office workers, $17 million to Sony, EMI, Universal, Warner and BMG. The majority of the remaining $5 million will be split between a dozen or so big names, like Alanis Morissette, the Barenaked Ladies, and Celine Dion, leaving our plucky Musician with a princely sum of $112 ... but more likely than not, less than that. Probably nothing at all.

Wow. Seems like a great time to be a bureaucratic or music exec in Canada.