SOCAN member and industry relations executive Tim Hardy recently presented “SOCAN 101" info sessions at two music camps in Sherbrooke Village, N.S.: The Road to Stanfest Songwriters' Music Camp, held June 29 - July 2, 2009, and the Sherbrooke Village Fiddle Camp, held July 6 - 9, 2009. Hardy discussed copyright, SOCAN membership and sources of SOCAN royalties with camp participants who were eager to learn more about how their music can make money.

The instructors at the songwriters' camp were SOCAN members Dave Carroll, Clary Croft, Susan Crowe and Dave Gunning; those at the fiddle camp were members Vivian and Ivan Hicks, Kimberley and Skip Holmes and Shane Cook (Grand North American Fiddle Champion and member of the group Bowfire).

Each camp finished with a gala concert as part of the Sherbrooke Village Courthouse Concert Series, where the students and instructors were able to perform a song they composed or a tune they'd learned. The students from the songwriters' music camp were also able to perform at the Stan Rogers Folk Festival later that week in Canso, N.S.

A highlight of the Road to Stanfest camp was when Dave Carroll gave both the students and his fellow instructors a sneak peak of "United Breaks Guitars," a music video about an ordeal he faced with United Airlines. Since the camp, the video was posted on YouTube and has gone viral, receiving more than 2.8 million hits – the top YouTube video of all time in Canada. The story has been picked up by all the major Canadian (CBC, CTV and Global) and many American television networks (Fox TV, MSNBC, NBC, ABC, CBS, CNN), and articles have been written by the Chicago Tribune, the L.A. Times and the New York Daily News. Carroll has also done an interview with Rolling Stone.