Canada's Re:Sound appoints Lou Ragagnin as its CEO

By Emmanuel Legrand

Lou Ragagnin has been named President and CEO of Canada's neighbouring rights society Re:Sound. Ragagnin replaces outgoing CEO Ian MacKay who announced last autumn that he was leaving the non-profit company. Ragagnin will join on May 19, 2020. In the interim, Arif Ahmad, Re:Sound Vice-President Legal Affairs and General Counsel, will serve as Acting President.

  Ragagnin joins from Chartered Professional Accountants Canada, where he was Senior Vice President of Operations, overseeing strategic planning and related processes. He also worked at ole Media Management (now Anthem Entertainment Group) as COO.

  At Re:Sound, Ragagnin will "manage day-to-day operations, oversee the executive team on new and ongoing projects, and identify priorities and strategies in collaboration with Re:Sound’s member organisations." 

  Founded in 1997, Re:Sound collects the proceeds from the public performance of sound recordings and distributes them to ACTRARACS (recording artists), Artisti (recording artists from Québec), MROC (musicians), CONNECT (audiovisual), SOPROQ (record labels from Québec), Sony Music Entertainment Canada, Universal Music Canada and Warner Music Canada.

A meaningful difference

  "Performance royalties make a meaningful difference in the lives of music creators. I’m thrilled to join an organisation with such a vital role in the Canadian music ecosystem and look forward to working with the Re:Sound team and board, and to contributing more broadly to the music industry in Canada," said Ragagnin. 

  In 2018 (last figures available), Re:Sound distributed CA47.2 million, up from CA$45.9 million in 2017, despite a significant drop in revenues from private copying. Revenues come from over 100,000 businesses using music in Canada.Re:Sound and authors rights society SOCAN jointly operate Entandem, a joint venture which provides a single licensing for the use of music to users, launched in July 2019.