Meet the Mentors: Royalty Review Month

Royalties, copyright, and music licensing - what are they and how are they different? How do music creators and performers cover their bases and ensure they’re properly registered to get paid? We're kicking off a month of sessions dedicated to unraveling royalties on October 8 and running every Thursday, 12-1PM via Facebook Live! Join us to dissect the various revenue streams and performance rights organizations (PROs) and collective management organizations (CMOs) who support the creative community. Check out the dates, times, and organizations below and join us, live, for an opportunity to learn from and ask your own questions to our presenters.

But first, meet your mentors...

Rebecca Webster / CMRRA Session, October 8
Rebecca Webster is the Director of Industry Relations & Communications at the Canadian Musical Reproduction Rights Agency (CMRRA), a SoundExchange company. She joined CMRRA in 2019 after running highly-respected music public relations company Webster Media Consulting Inc. for the last ten years in Toronto. Known for her roster of award-winning artists, she helmed the Canadian publicity campaigns for Arcade Fire’s ‘The Suburbs’, French-Canadian rock band Karkwa, Netflix docu-series Hip Hop Evolution host Shad, Children’s music entertainers Splash ’N Boots as well as Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds and Third Man Records’ Margo Price, among others. Prior to launching Webster, she built and ran the Toronto media office for Montreal’s Distribution Fusion III. She is an honours graduate of Ryerson University’s esteemed Radio & Television Arts and Public Relations programs.

Tiara Guy / SoundExchange Session, October 15
Tiara Guy is currently the Outreach Manager of Industry Relations at SoundExchange.  She is responsible for organizing the Artist and Label outreach program, as well as building relationships with other organizations within the music community.  She finds and helps Artists and Rights Owners for whom SoundExchange has unclaimed royalties but aren't yet registered. You can also catch her at several industry events helping Artists and Labels register for their digital performance royalties or assisting with their current accounts.  Tiara holds a BA in Media Arts and Design from James Madison University with a solid background in Customer Relations.

Andrew Karis / ACTRA-RACS Session, October 22
For the past 8 years, Andrew has worked to performers access their neighbouring rights royalties and understand what rights and royalties are available to them in Canada and around the world. His brings past music industry experience working with unions, in music supervision, event planning and performance to his current role at ACTRA RACS.  He also loves good tip about great new music to listen to!  

Houtan Hodania / SOCAN Session, October 29
Passionate about music from a young age, Houtan Hodania has long known he would pursue a career in the music industry. Starting out as a DJ in high school, things snowballed quickly, and he soon began playing at all of Vancouver’s most notable music venues. After putting on countless events and becoming one of Vancouver’s most recognized DJs, Houtan was able to leverage what he was doing in the live music scene into a role with SOCAN. He is currently SOCAN’s west coast A&R Rep, based in Vancouver, helping SOCAN members engage with the marketplace, and collaborate within it to a greater degree by employing industry contacts, talent-assessment, career-development, and people-connecting skills.