So you just crafted out your wedding budget, booked your venue and everything is looking good. Sign a contract with your DJ (with Get the Party Started of course) then you get this bill from your venue with a SOCAN fee of $61 that allows you to play music at your wedding. OK fine, so you pay it. NOW there's going to be another fee that you're going to have to pay - compliments of Re:Sound, who represents all those who own royalties on the music (isn't that what the SOCAN fee is all about?!?!!?). Right now it's up to the venue to decide whether they eat the cost or pass it on to you, but I'm pretty sure I know who's going to pay for it... Anyway the cost breakdown looks like this :
$9.25 per day if fewer than 100 people are present and goes up to $39.33 for crowds of more than 500 people. Here's the kicker - if there's dancing (cause I mean honestly - WHO dances at a wedding anyway?!?!?) the fees DOUBLE!!! Awesome.
Stealing music via piracy etc = not cool. So assuming your DJ is using legit music that he/she has paid for (and no it's not iTunes $.99 cents per song) that has commercial rights associated with it (Music Tax #1), then your DJ gets licensed with AVLA to play music (Music Tax #2), then you load up your SOCAN fee for the right to play music at your wedding (Music Tax #3), now you have to pay Re:Sound (Music Tax #4) oh and in case you were going to dance at your wedding, that fee doubles!!! Awesome. Can you imagine if the NDP was in charge?!?!? You'd have to pay a tax for each person that dances on the dance floor! Ridic!
I feel for you brides; tax, tax, tax. I don't want this to be all doom and gloom, so check this vid. Sweet Brown said it best "Re:Sound fees?!?!? Aint nobody got time for that!!!"
Ha ha ha - makes me laugh every time I watch it...
If you're looking for more info on Re:Sound, check this article by the Calgary Herald.