When the bass drops in a HIIT class or classic rock fills your weight room, members feel the energy—in fact, music is a pillar of fitness.
But that soundtrack doesn’t come free.
Canadian copyright law treats every song played in a facility as a public performance, which means gyms must secure licences (yes, plural) from both SOCAN and Re:Sound, now bundled conveniently through Entandem.
Yet just as clubs rebound from pandemic losses, the very collectives that issue those licences are proposing fee hikes of up to 300 per cent—a move Fitness Industry Council of Canada (FIC) views as untenable for thousands of operators.
Below, we blend the fundamentals of compliance with the latest advocacy update, so you can keep the music pumping without breaking the bank—or the law.