From artist + title to a report-ready file
SOCAN is Canada's performing-rights organization for songwriters, composers, and publishers — the composition side, distinct from Re:Sound's recording side. Its royalties follow the musical work, identified by its ISWC, not the recording. A recording-only play log is missing that link.
SonoVault bridges it. Resolve your play log's artist + title to a canonical recording with its ISRC, label, and release data in Bulk Lookup, then map each recording to the ISWC of the work behind it with SonoVault's ISWC lookup — so a recording-centric log can be resolved to the composition SOCAN pays on.
Resolve your play log in the Bulk Lookup tool in your SonoVault dashboard. A free account includes 1,000 lookups a month — no credit card needed.
🇨🇦 What SOCAN needs from your report
SOCAN administers public-performance and communication rights in musical works — the songwriting copyright — collecting for songwriters, composers, and music publishers whenever a work is performed in public in Canada, and internationally through reciprocal agreements. It's separate from Re:Sound, which pays performers and labels for the sound recording; a broadcaster typically reports to and pays both.
Because SOCAN pays on the underlying work, its matching keys on the composition — identified by the ISWC — and on the writer and publisher identities behind it. A radio or stream play log identifies the recording (artist, title, sometimes an ISRC), not the work. Bridging the recording to its work is what lets a report resolve to the right composition instead of landing in the unidentified pile.
The gap most reporters hit: playout and now-playing logs identify the recording — artist, title, sometimes an ISRC — but not the ISWC work code that SOCAN's composition-side matching needs. SonoVault's ISRC → ISWC mapping bridges that gap.
How it works
- 1
Paste your artist + title list
Drop in a column of tracks — a station play log, a setlist, or a catalog export — one per line, up to 1,000. Or import a CSV and map the Artist and Title columns.
- 2
Resolve to ISRC + label
Press Resolve. Each line is matched to a canonical recording and its ISRC, album, and record label — the fields a usage report relies on to identify a recording.
- 3
Download the enriched file
Export a CSV with Artist, Title, Album, Label, and ISRC for every track, then map those columns to the format your society's report expects.
What SonoVault adds to each track
One row per track, enriched with the recording identifier and clean release data your report needs.
ArtistThe featured artist, cleaned to its canonical spelling.TitleThe recording's title, normalised against the catalog.ISRCThe code for the recording that aired, from Bulk Lookup.ISWCThe work code for the composition behind it, mapped from the ISRC via SonoVault's ISWC lookup.Album · LabelClean release data to corroborate the match.From recording to work
SOCAN keys on the ISWC — the code for the musical work. SonoVault takes the ISRC of the recording that aired and maps it to the ISWC(s) of the work behind it, plus clean label and release data.
One 12-character code that names the exact recording — the studio cut, the radio edit, the remaster all have their own. It is the cleanest, highest-match way to tie a reported play to the right recording.
Clean, canonical release data corroborates the match and stands in when an ISRC is unavailable. SonoVault returns all of it, normalised against a 90M-recording catalog.
Common uses
Music-use reporting to SOCAN
Attach the work identifier behind each recording you played so your report resolves to the right composition and writers.
Bridge a recording log to works
Take a recording-side log (artist, title, ISRC) and map each line to its ISWC for composition-side reporting.
Report to Re:Sound and SOCAN together
A broadcaster pays both — Re:Sound on the recording, SOCAN on the work. Enrich once with the ISRC (for Re:Sound) and the ISWC (for SOCAN).
Reduce unidentified performances
Ambiguous artist/title strings resolved to canonical recordings and their works, cutting the unmatched pile.
Reporting to another collecting society?
SonoVault supplies the ISRC and metadata for these reporting flows too.
Frequently asked questions
Enrich your report free
A free SonoVault account includes 1,000 lookups a month. Paste your artist + title list, resolve it to ISRC, album, and label, and export the file — no credit card, no code.
Not affiliated with SOCAN. SonoVault is an independent music metadata service and is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or connected to the Society of Composers, Authors and Music Publishers of Canada (SOCAN). We supply ISRC, label, and release data; you are responsible for your own membership, licences, and reporting, and for confirming SOCAN's current requirements. Always verify data before you submit it. Official sources: SOCAN — Important Codes & Numbers · SOCAN.