I know of a small restaurant in BC that was playing Canadian music and was told they had to pay $500 a year or stop--guess what?-- they stopped.

Also there was once a circuit of house concerts in the interior of BC--three venues. They often paid the whole door to the performers but when they could they took something for expenses such as coffee, rentals etc. SOCAN said, pay a licensing fee or else--[this would also provide a paper trail for revenue Canda who would want records kept, could lead to the fire marshall attending and a business license etc.] ---guess what? they stopped, after providing 40 x 3 concerts for travelling musicians.

The major complaint about SOCAN is that fees do not trickly down, but only go to the top performers.

Where are those shears?

richard