SOCAN Teams with Musical AI to Create Opt-In Licensing Tools for AI-Generated Music

A new partnership between SOCAN and AI‑music platform Musical AI aims to give Canadian songwriters control over how their work is used by AI. Announced in early 2026, the collaboration lets rights holders specify which parts of their catalog can be licensed to AI companies and provides a mechanism for attributing and monetizing AI‑generated music that incorporates those elements.

SOCAN, the nonprofit that represents more than 175,000 Canadian songwriters, composers and publishers, will use Musical AI’s platform to analyze content that has scraped or sampled Canadian music. The analysis produces documentation that can be used to license and credit the original works within new AI compositions. Participation is opt‑in, meaning creators must explicitly choose to be included.

"If you think about all the ways that we typically license users of music, it’s always with the rights holders: the creators, the publishers, the composers, sharing in the financial benefits," said Jennifer Brown, SOCAN’s chief executive. "If you’re generating revenue off the backs of creators, then there should be a revenue share in that."

The partnership comes amid growing concerns over AI models that allegedly ingest copyrighted material to produce new songs, images, videos and text. While the technology can generate tracks that mimic recognizable styles, it can also embed tiny, hard‑to‑detect fragments—"slivers"—of existing recordings. Catherine Moore, a professor in the Music Technology & Digital Media Program at the University of Toronto, has questioned how to identify and compensate for these slivers.

"I think what organizations such as SOCAN are looking for is, how do we identify that sliver?" Moore asked. "I also question what could be done about the extensive creative material that has already been used in AI‑generated content without authorization."

Musical AI’s platform is billed as a tool that lets musical rights holders establish which parts of their catalog can be used in AI content and allows AI companies to attribute and license what they generate. The SOCAN–Musical AI partnership will use the platform to create documentation that can license and attribute rights to AI‑generated musical creations.

The initiative follows SOCAN’s long‑standing lobbying of Parliament and the courts to modernize Canadian copyright law. In 2025, SOCAN, along with ASCAP and BMI, announced new AI registration rules that allow partially AI‑generated works to be licensed through their organizations.

Artists’ reactions have been mixed. Ottawa‑based folk singer Lynn Miles said it was "heartbreaking" to discover that 19 of her songs had been used in AI‑generated music. She warned that without legal or monetary consequences for tech companies, there will be little incentive to credit or compensate artists.

"SOCAN’s been going to parliament and court for years to try to change copyright law," Miles said. "I think that’s a difficult fight. I wish them luck."

Brown also highlighted the need for transparency from AI companies. "At the same time that we’re looking at how we would work on this ourselves, we’re also going to government and saying AI companies also need to be responsible for transparency," she added.

Industry observers note that the partnership is still in its early stages. Key details remain unfinalized, including how the musical components used in AI content will be determined and how royalties will be paid out. Brown acknowledged that proof of concept on a wider scale is required before the tools can be finalized.

"Even if it’s not being disclosed now, we know that all that output is really copyrighted, and human‑created songs that are building that," she said. "This is a really interesting experiment to work with Musical AI… and go, ‘Okay, let’s get ready for the future when we can actually license and pay out.’"

The partnership reflects a broader trend of rights holders seeking ways to monetize AI‑generated content. While some creators, such as rock musician Matt Bergman, worry that AI could erode the authenticity of music, others see the technology as a new creative tool.

Bergman said, "I’m not against using technology to record real sounds and stuff like that. But technology has pretty much decimated the music business since the year 2000." He added that the proliferation of AI‑generated impressions may change listeners’ expectations over time.

The collaboration between SOCAN and Musical AI is one of several initiatives aimed at establishing clear licensing frameworks for AI‑generated music. As AI models continue to evolve, the industry will need to monitor how these tools are applied and whether they can deliver the promised revenue sharing for Canadian creators.

The partnership is still in its formative phase, and further details on implementation, royalty distribution, and regulatory compliance are expected to emerge in the coming months.