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, but its music-use reports are built from what you actually played: recordings.
Sonovault covers both halves. Bulk Lookup resolves your play log's artist + title to canonical recordings with their ISRC, label, and release data; Sonovault's ISWC lookup then maps each ISRC to the work code behind it, 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.
SOCAN's specs make the recording-to-work bridge explicit. Commercial radio's monthly sequential logs list the recording fields: sound-recording title, work title, performers, label, durations, UPC, and ISRC, all mandatory where the station has them. The online-services tariffs go further and ask for both the ISRC of the recording and the ISWC of the work, plus authors and publishers, per file. A play log that stops at artist + title leaves all of those columns for someone else to reconstruct, and unmatched performances land in the unidentified pile.
The gap most reporters hit: playout and now-playing logs identify the recording loosely (artist and title, occasionally an ISRC) and never the ISWC work code that SOCAN's composition-side matching needs. Sonovault's ISRC → ISWC mapping is the bridge.
No usable play log? Build one from the stream
Bulk Lookup assumes you already have a log. If your playout system exports nothing usable, or you need evidence of what actually aired rather than what the scheduler intended, Sonovault can build the log instead of enriching one.
Point us at your Icecast or Shoutcast stream URL and every recording is identified as it airs, into a timestamped spin log with the ISRC already attached. An airplay report over any date range then gives you per-track play counts alongside a row for each individual airing. SOCAN pays on the underlying work rather than the recording, so here a spin log is the starting point rather than the finished report. It pins down exactly which recording aired and when, and you still map that recording to the work being performed.
Monitoring is billed per active station, separately from your API plan. Reading your own spin logs and airplay reports costs no API credits.
SOCAN reporting at a glance
Checked against SOCAN's tariff texts as published by the Copyright Board. Several current field lists come from proposed (not yet certified) tariffs, so treat them as what SOCAN asks for and confirm the certified text for your years.
Commercial radioMonthly sequential logs of every work broadcast, every day. The per-entry field list includes date, time, work and recording titles, performers, label, durations, catalogue number, UPC, and ISRC, with 'where available' meaning mandatory if it's in your possession. Due the 1st of the month for the reference month.Online servicesMusic-use reports within 20 days of each month-end. The required-information list asks for both the ISWC of the work and the ISRC of the recording, plus each author, publisher, album identifiers, and play counts per file.WebcastersInternet-only services fall under Tariff 22.C (certified through 2018 at 0.75–2.65% of applicable revenue by repertoire use; proposed 2024–2026 texts restructure the rates). Broadcaster streams sit under 22.B; simulcast is being folded into Tariff 1.A.Radio rates3.2% of gross income up to $1.25M/yr and 4.4% above; low-use stations (under 20% SOCAN repertoire, 90 days of airchecks kept) pay 1.5%.FormatElectronic: Excel or delimited text, one field per data element, by email or as agreed; SOCAN also runs a licensee portal for filings and payment. No public ingestion spec exists; formats are agreed bilaterally.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 (a named field in SOCAN's radio and online specs).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 pays on the ISWC (the code for the musical work), but asks for the ISRC of the recording in its reports. Sonovault supplies both: the ISRC from Bulk Lookup, the ISWC via the ISRC → ISWC mapping.
The International Standard Musical Work Code names the underlying composition: the song, not the recording. It's what SOCAN's composition-side matching keys on, it's requested per file in the online tariffs, and the same ISWC covers every recording of that song.
Sonovault takes the ISRC of the recording that aired and maps it to the ISWC(s) of the work behind it, so a recording-centric play log resolves to the composition SOCAN pays on. One recording can map to several works (medleys, samples).
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 - codes & metadata · Copyright Board - SOCAN Tariff 1.A (proposed) · Copyright Board - SOCAN Tariff 22.A (proposed).