eBizBlog

Last week, the Copyright Board of Canada began hearings into a newly-proposed system for SOCAN (http://www.socan.ca/) to charge those who use copyrighted music on the internet. Tariff 22 details specific charges to be levied for podcasters. (Check out Michael Geist’s blog for details - www.michaelgeist.ca/content/view/1882/)

While the Board seems to be heading in the right direction as far as going easy on communities and colleges who include podcasts as part of their digital presence, they seem to be creating a new and separate problem. SOCAN is suggesting that amateur podcasters, whose “programming is less than 20 percent music” pay an annual fee of $60.00 (presumably CDN) for using music in their podcasts.

To my mind, this poses a difficult question. What, by definition, is an amateur podcaster? If I have a podcast on my site to simply offer information about me, or my business/products/services, am I still an amateur? Or does the possibility of an imminent commercial transaction make me a professional podcaster, instead? What if you listen to my podcast and then offer me a consulting contract? Am I then profiting ONLY from the podcast…or did you decide to employ my firm because of the “whole” of what was on my website?

Is there anyone out there right now who is considered a professional podcaster? How much are they making every year? Is this tariff reasonable for someone who profits from podcasting, which is generally not a high-overhead enterprise?

My search on Google.ca for the phrase “professional podcaster” yielded 783 results. The majority of the searches returned were links to arguments about how it’s no more possible to be a “professional podcaster” than it is to be a “professional breather” or a “professional talker”. Many of the contributors to this debate evoked the “level playing field” argument, which points out that anyone with the necessary equipment can become a podcaster - and that said podcaster may well become widely listened to and respected…just because they’re good at what they do, and how they say it.

I guess the trick is getting paid to do it!