Canada's Podcast Challenge

As podcasting's profile grows (Billboard, June 18), Canada's music industry is grappling with determining its business model.

Canadian Music Reproduction Rights Agency president David Basskin says the authors' body is being approached by commercial and amateur podcasters seeking licenses.

"It's great that people want to work with rights holders after so much unauthorized distribution of music," Basskin says, "but we still don't know how to handle [podcasting] yet. How do you price it? How do you track it?"

"There are going to be hiccups as we each figure out what to charge," Canadian Recording Industry Assn. president Graham Henderson says. "Also, while the big players—major broadcasters and others who'll provide 90% of the podcasting content of interest to people—will play by the rules, and we'll be paid by a blanket license or agreed-upon rate card, the remaining 10% will try to podcast with music that may be unlicensed."

Podcasting software and services deliver digital audio content from the Web directly to the computers or portable media devices of consumers who request it.

One step toward establishing the overall licensing of podcasts was taken in March by SOCAN. The performing rights agency proposed to the Copyright Board of Canada a tariff covering musical works in podcasts.

SOCAN's proposal calls for podcasters to pay a minimum monthly fee of $200 Canadian ($163) or 15% of their gross monthly revenue from podcasting (whichever is greater) to SOCAN for authors' performing rights.

SOCAN VP/general counsel Paul Spurgeon says the Copyright Board is unlikely to rule on the proposal before 2006, but adds that "in the interim, we are prepared to grant experimental licenses to anyone who wants to podcast."

Utilized initially by amateurs to create their own audio programs, podcasting hit the mainstream last month when Apple Computer launched the latest version of its iTunes software worldwide, enabling users to access more than 3,000 audio programs—most of them talk-based.

Government-owned broadcaster CBC Radio—which began offering talk- and music-related podcasts in late May—reports that more than 80,000 CBC Radio 3 podcasts were downloaded in the first week of the software's launch.

"This is great news for the independent Canadian musicians featured on CBC Radio," says Krista Harris, executive director of production and resources at the broadcaster. "Their music is now being exposed to a new—potentially enormous—national and international audience."

Podcasting has already been attracting attention from Canadian media firms. Toronto-based broadcaster Corus Entertainment, for example, provides podcasts for its specialty radio programs "The Ongoing History of New Music" and "Legends of Classic Rock." And the Toronto Star newspaper launched a podcast in May with an audio version of music journalist John Sakamoto's weekly "Anti-Hit List" column.

The bulk of podcasting in Canada, however, remains the province of hundreds of amateur hobbyists. "We don't really know how much Canadian podcasting is really out there," Basskin admits.

Basskin shares the view of many Canadian music industry figures that podcasts are MP3 files containing music that are accessible to millions worldwide without suitable payment.

"The relationship between the content of a podcast and potential cannibalization of [music] sales," he says, "is very real." ••••