Fresh faces as APRA, AMCOS unveil new boards

If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. Australasian music rights organisation, APRA AMCOS, has confirmed board members for both divisions.

Ian James of Mushroom Music will continue his senior roles on both boards. James will serve as chair of AMCOS and deputy chair of APRA.

Both organisations had their annual general meetings in Sydney on Wednesday, 13 November.

APRA

Writer Jenny Morris and Publisher Damian Trotter of Sony/ATV Music Publishing Australia were re-elected.

Morris, who had 26.6% of the vote, retains the position of chair.

New to the board representing writers are singer-songwriter Bic Runga and film composer Jonathan Zwartz, while representing publishers is Andrew Jenkins, president of Australia and Asia Pacific Region for Universal Music Publishing.

Jonathan Zwartz / 2018 ARIA Awards

Zwartz got 21.3% of he vote, and fended off other writer candidates Nerida Tyson-Chew, Jake Mason, Kate Miller-Heidke, Kristy Lee Peters, Art Phillips, Felicity Wilco, Ken Francis and John Prior.

Runga, for APRA New Zealand, got a massive 71.3% vote over Jan Hellriegel and Marshall Smith,

Others on the APRA board are Amanda Brown, Brendan Gallagher and Chris Neal representing writers, and for publishers Matthew Capper of Warner/Chappell Music Australia and Marianna Annas of ABC Music Publishing.

AMCOS

Publishers Clive Hodson of Perfect Pitch Publishing, Steve McPherson of Hillsong Music Publishing Australia, Simon Moor of Kobalt Music Publishing Australia and Philip Walker of Origin Music Publishing retained their positions.

Andrew Jenkins of Universal Music Publishing was newly elected to the board.

Marianna Annas was named deputy chair.

Fleshing out the AMCOS board are Matthew Capper, Philip Burn of Hal Leonard,  Jaime Gough of Native Tongue Music and Peter Hebbes of Hebbes Music Group.

Full details including all votes and candidates can be viewed here.

In October APRA AMCOS announced that they paid more songwriting and composing royalties to music creators, music publishers and overseas collection societies than ever before, with a record-breaking $471.8 million in total revenue for the 2018-19 financial year.

Net distributable revenue of $410.9 million – the amount payable to members and affiliated societies – eclipsed last year’s $362.8 million.