Under Canada’s Copyright Act, it is legal for individuals to copy recorded music for their own personal use. In exchange, rights holders, including performers, are entitled to receive remuneration in the form of private copying royalties from a levy. The levy is collected from manufacturers and importers of blank audio media including recordable CDs. The Canadian Private Copying Collective (CPCC) collects the levy and disburses to Re-Sound the share of the levy (about 40%) to which performers and record companies are entitled. Re-Sound in turn distributes to MROC the share to which its performers are entitled.

The other 60% of the levy collected is distributed to songwriters and music publishers through their collective societies.

Private copying refers to the making of copies of pre-recorded musical works, performers’ performances and sound recordings onto a blank recording medium, such as CDs for personal use. An example of such legal copying would be using a blank CDR/CDRW to make, a second copy of a CD so you can have a copy to play in the car.

Because such copies are made privately, it would be impossible to track what is being copied. Therefore the calculation for receiving these royalties is based on information collected from both the sale of recorded music as well as radio airplay.

There are four collectives that receive revenue from the Private Copying Levy.  They are:

The CPCC collects the levies determined by the Copyright Board. The revenue is earmarked for songwriters, music publishers, performers and record companies. The organizations that represent each group are:

• Re-Sound – performers and “makers” (record companies)
• SOCAN – songwriters and music publishers
• SODRAC – (largely) French language music publishers and songwriters
• CMRRA – (largely) English language music publishers

Re-Sound in turns distributes half the money it receives to the performer collectives (including MROC) and the other half to the maker collectives.

Performers who are also their own record label, and who write and publish the songs on those recordings can receive royalties in each of those capacities.

Payments are not made by CPCC directly but are routed through its four member collectives including Re-Sound. MROC is a sub-collective of Re-Sound.

While songwriters and music publishers are eligible regardless of nationality, only Canadian recording artists and record companies may receive payments under current law. The current distribution allocation as set down by the Copyright Board is:

• Author/Publishers -58%
• Makers- 18%
• Performers – 23.8%

Additional information about the private copying levy can be found at:  www.cpcc.ca

Information about protecting this levy can be found at www.savethelevy.ca