Understood.
Evidence of meeting #124 for Canadian Heritage in the 42nd Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was copyright.
A video is available from Parliament.
Evidence of meeting #124 for Canadian Heritage in the 42nd Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was copyright.
A video is available from Parliament.
12:40 p.m.
Senior Vice-President and General Counsel, SiriusXM Canada
—in favour of a streaming service that has none.
12:40 p.m.
Edmonton Centre, Lib.
I see your submission. I know we're done, so thank you for the technical nature of your submission, which helps us with our colleagues over at Industry.
Thank you.
12:40 p.m.
Bellechasse—Les Etchemins—Lévis, CPC
Thank you very much, Madam Chair.
I entered politics in the same year that Spotify was created and I'm glad to see it is a multi-billion-dollar company now.
Maybe I can begin my questions with you, Mr. Schmidt. You mentioned that you were open to sharing some data with us today. Is it possible for you to share how much was returned to Canadian artists over the course of the last year?
12:40 p.m.
Senior Counsel, Spotify
I can't share that today because I don't have that available to me, but we can look into that and figure that out, although I guess the question goes back to an earlier issue, which is that we don't necessarily have visibility on what ultimately goes to artists and creators.
Of course we license and pay the rights holders of these various rights; what they end up paying to those creators is between them.
12:40 p.m.
Bellechasse—Les Etchemins—Lévis, CPC
Would it be possible to share with us how much is going to the rights holders of Canadian artists?
12:40 p.m.
Senior Counsel, Spotify
I can look into that. The reason I hesitate, sir, is that we don't share per territory user numbers, just for competitive reasons. I'm somewhat limited to what we publicly disclose in our financial filings, but I can look into whether we can disclose that information to you and this committee.
12:40 p.m.
Bellechasse—Les Etchemins—Lévis, CPC
I understand that there are two ways for Canadian artists to get revenue from you. It could be from being used by your users, like Mr. Boissonnault, or are you investing directly in Canadian cultural content at this time?
12:40 p.m.
Senior Counsel, Spotify
We have a number of employees in Canada right now. I think it's 30-something. There is an editorial team that develops dedicated playlists, and we've had live shows in Canada. I mentioned in my testimony that we're working with an upcoming event to promote francophone hip-hop artists. There are always things happening in Canada.
12:40 p.m.
Bellechasse—Les Etchemins—Lévis, CPC
Okay. Is there no formal program for you to invest in Canadian artists at this point in time?
12:40 p.m.
Senior Counsel, Spotify
That's true. As a digital service provider, we're hearing from Casablanca Media Publishing, and I may have the name wrong, but they develop artists. They have those relationships. They spend money on A & R, or artists and repertoire. That's what they do. It's important for them to have those relationships, develop that content, and get those copyrights, and then they license that content to a service like us.
12:40 p.m.
Bellechasse—Les Etchemins—Lévis, CPC
I have one last question. Are there some countries where you are regulated in terms of the amount you share with the rights holders of the product you stream?
12:40 p.m.
Senior Counsel, Spotify
That's a pretty broad question. The answer has to be yes because, as in Canada, there are tariff rates. We don't pay under the tariff rates because we have licences negotiated with some of the bodies in Canada. In the United States, for example, there is section 115 of the Copyright Act, which regulates, you could say, the amount of royalties that we pay for mechanical rights, for example. There are similar examples throughout the world.
It's much less common—in fact, I don't think it's ever true—on the sound recording side of the ledger.
12:40 p.m.
Bellechasse—Les Etchemins—Lévis, CPC
Thank you.
I will turn to you, Mr. Jaakkola, from Sirius XM. Thank you indeed for your recommendations, which are pretty interesting and helpful.
I have the same kind of question for you. Are you investing in Canadian artists? Can you share with us the amount of your revenue that goes to the rights holder of the content that you are diffusing?
12:40 p.m.
Senior Vice-President and General Counsel, SiriusXM Canada
I apologize, but I don't have those exact figures with me today. I do have these high-level numbers of cumulatively $175 million to copyright holders, in addition to another $110 million to the cultural sector. That's through a variety of mechanisms and through contributions to FACTOR, Musicaction and so forth.
Through our CRTC obligations, we do have an ongoing commitment of 4% of our revenues. As I've mentioned, we also have a commitment to tangible benefits in the amount of $28.7 million that goes to a number of mandated funds that promote—
12:45 p.m.
Bellechasse—Les Etchemins—Lévis, CPC
The CRTC is asking this 4% to go to what?
12:45 p.m.
Senior Vice-President and General Counsel, SiriusXM Canada
The 4% is for Canadian content development.
12:45 p.m.
Bellechasse—Les Etchemins—Lévis, CPC
It's to Canadian content, yes. This would apply only to Canadian companies.
12:45 p.m.
Senior Vice-President and General Counsel, SiriusXM Canada
Yes, Canadian artists or creators.
12:45 p.m.
Bellechasse—Les Etchemins—Lévis, CPC
It's to Canadian artists, but the fact that you're based in Canada means you have to—
12:45 p.m.
Senior Vice-President and General Counsel, SiriusXM Canada
It's because we are a CRTC-licensed broadcaster.
12:45 p.m.
Bellechasse—Les Etchemins—Lévis, CPC
My last question is for Ms. Mitchell.
Madame Mitchell, you mentioned, if I have it correctly, that you have the rights to the song My Way by Frank Sinatra. Is that what you said?
12:45 p.m.
Bellechasse—Les Etchemins—Lévis, CPC
Can you give me an example of how much revenue is brought by a user of that song? What kind of revenue is this song generating annually in Canada, or can you give an example of the way it works for you to collect the money and then give it to the owner of the rights to that song?
