From fyi music news

Dutch Caribbean radio stations in Aruba, Curacao, Bonaire, and St. Maarten will now be paying performing rights for the first time, which will be collected by SOCAN and newly minted PRO Ducapro.

Under the services agreement, SOCAN will provide back-office royalty administration that includes matching reported information from music used on licensed radio stations to the payment to rights-holders whose music is captured in the station logs.

“SOCAN has the expertise to support paying international and local creators through tools and processes to make this happen,” said Ducapro legal counsel David Kock. “In collaboration with SOCAN, local music creators will have worldwide support in the collection and distribution of royalties, especially through digital media.”

In addition to SOCAN, Ducapro has the support and backing of the Aruba Musician & Artist Association (AMAA), along with other local and regional artist associations and government entities. DK Legal, a Dutch Caribbean law firm, will collect local license fees on behalf of Ducapro and enforce the rights of domestic and international music rights holders.

These local and international partnerships will ensure Ducapro’s success as it expands from radio play into television, music streaming, and beyond.

“Our agreement with Ducapro is a rare opportunity to witness the start of a new performing rights organization in the Western Hemisphere, let alone being the services company that empowers it,” said SOCAN CEO Eric Baptiste. “This speaks to SOCAN’s mission to lead the global transformation of music rights and, ultimately, bring even more value to our own members and stakeholders.”

With a rapidly expanding data set that currently totals over 22-million International Standard Work Codes (ISWCs), more than 66-million sound recordings and all their verified metadata, over 41-million International Standard Recording Codes (ISRCs) with more than 20-million linked to ISWCs, the SOCAN Group of companies has built “an unsurpassed ability to match musical performances with rights-holders.”

The organization is widely regarded as possessing one of the world’s most powerful and accurate multi-territory, multi-rights database of music compositions and sound recordings.

IMAGE: SOCAN CEO Eric Baptiste

For more on this story go to; https://www.fyimusicnews.ca/articles/2018/05/08/socan-signs-admin-deal-dutch-caribbean-pro