SOCAN vs ASCAP vs BMI: Which PRO Should a Canadian Songwriter Join?

Which PRO should a Canadian songwriter join?

Join SOCAN. If you write or co-write songs and you live in Canada, SOCAN is your performing rights organization. You can only be affiliated with one PRO at a time, so this is a single choice, not a portfolio you build. SOCAN already has reciprocal agreements with ASCAP, BMI, and more than 100 other societies worldwide, which means it collects your US and international performance royalties and pays them through to you. Joining ASCAP or BMI directly instead of SOCAN doesn't get you anything extra. It mostly creates confusion about who collects what.

This is the spoke that settles the SOCAN versus US PRO question. For where performance royalties sit among the four royalty types, and how mechanicals get handled, follow the links at the bottom.

A note on what a PRO actually covers: it collects performance royalties on the composition, the song you wrote, when it gets played publicly. That's radio, streaming, live, TV. It does not collect mechanical royalties, neighbouring rights, or sync. Those are different organizations, covered in the sibling guides. Keep that boundary in mind, because the question of which PRO is only one piece of getting fully paid.

Can a Canadian join ASCAP or BMI instead of SOCAN?

You can't hold both, and there's almost no reason to pick a US PRO over SOCAN. A songwriter can only be affiliated with one performing rights organization at a time. That's an exclusivity rule, and it works the same way in both countries. SOCAN is Canada's only PRO, and you can't be a direct member of SOCAN and ASCAP or BMI at the same time. So the real question isn't how many you sign up for, it's which single one.

For a Canadian, SOCAN is the default for a concrete reason. It has reciprocal agreements with more than 100 affiliated rights organizations around the world, ASCAP and BMI included. When your song gets played on US radio or streamed in the States, the US PRO collects that money and passes it to SOCAN, which pays it to you. You get your US performance royalties without ever joining a US PRO. That's the whole point of the reciprocal system. (Source: SOCAN, International Royalties.)

Joining ASCAP or BMI directly as a Canadian usually just complicates your registrations and splits your statements across two systems, for royalties SOCAN would have collected anyway. There are edge cases, like a US-based publishing deal that requires it, but for an independent Canadian songwriter releasing your own music, SOCAN covers the ground.

What does SOCAN actually do for a Canadian songwriter?

SOCAN collects performance royalties on your compositions and pays them to you, in Canada and internationally. SOCAN stands for the Society of Composers, Authors and Music Publishers of Canada. It's the country's only performing rights organization, with more than 200,000 songwriter, composer, and publisher members as of 2024. (Source: SOCAN 2024 centennial press release.)

The money it moves is real. SOCAN distributed a record $512.4 million CAD to creators and publishers in 2024, up 17.5% over the year before, on total revenue of $559.4 million CAD. Domestic digital revenue alone was $208.7 million CAD that year. (Source: SOCAN, centennial press release, April 2025.) That's the pool your streams and plays draw from.

Membership is free. You're eligible if you're a songwriter, composer, lyricist, or producer whose music has been published, recorded, or publicly performed. You sign up on SOCAN's Sign Up for Performing Rights page, register your works, and SOCAN handles collection from there, including pulling your international royalties in through those reciprocal agreements. (Source: SOCAN, Sign Up for Performing Rights.)

There's one more thing SOCAN can do that ASCAP and BMI can't. In 2018 it acquired SODRAC, so SOCAN now also administers reproduction (mechanical) rights in Canada and abroad. That gives self-published writers an option to collect both performance and mechanical royalties under one roof through SOCAN Reproduction Rights, instead of joining a separate mechanical agency. The mechanical side is its own decision, covered in the sibling guide on the MLC and CMRRA. (Source: SOCAN, Reproduction Rights FAQ.)

How does the writer and publisher split work at SOCAN?

A minimum of 50% of any registered composition's performance share goes to the writer or writers. The publisher's share is capped at 50%. This is a Canadian-specific rule, and it's worth knowing before you register anything. (Source: SOCAN Magazine, Composers' and Writers' Share Royalties.)

Here's why it matters for an independent artist. If you're self-published, meaning you have no publisher listed on the song, you receive 100% of the performance royalty. The writer floor and the publisher cap only come into play once a publisher is attached. So when you register your own songs with no publishing deal in the way, all of the performance money is yours.

This is also why getting the registration right is load-bearing. SOCAN pays based on what's registered. If you list a publisher you don't actually have a deal with, or you split the writer share incorrectly with a co-writer, that's how the money flows. Register your splits the way the deal actually is.

SOCAN vs ASCAP vs BMI: the practical comparison

For a Canadian songwriter, SOCAN is the only one of the three you should join, and the others are reached through it. Here's how the three line up on the things that actually decide it.

Sources: SOCAN sign-up page; ASCAP Join as Publisher; BMI FAQ on joining fees.

The cost columns look close because all three are free for songwriters. The line that decides it is the reciprocal one. As a Canadian, joining SOCAN gets you paid by ASCAP and BMI's territories automatically. Joining ASCAP or BMI instead would mean leaving SOCAN, and you'd then need SOCAN's network to reach you the other way. For someone living and releasing in Canada, that's backwards. Pick SOCAN.

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What about my US royalties, then? Am I really covered?

Yes, for performance royalties on the composition. SOCAN's reciprocal agreements with ASCAP, BMI, and 100-plus other societies mean US performance royalties get collected by the US PRO and remitted to SOCAN, which pays you. You don't need a US PRO membership to get them. (Source: SOCAN, International Royalties.)

What SOCAN does not cover is everything that isn't a composition performance royalty. Your US streaming mechanicals come from The MLC or through CMRRA, not from your PRO. Your neighbouring rights on the recording come from Re:Sound and its performer collectives in Canada, and from SoundExchange in the US. Those are separate registrations with separate organizations, and they're where a lot of indie artists leave money uncollected. The sibling guides cover each one. Your PRO is the performance-royalty piece, and SOCAN handles that piece well.

So the short version: SOCAN for performance, then go set up the mechanical and neighbouring-rights collection separately. Don't assume one membership catches all four royalty types, because it doesn't.