Features February 19, 2021

Is APRA AMCOS’ ‘monopoly’ good or bad?

Sheridan van Gelderen

Speaking on The Industry Observer’s Fear At The Top podcast, APRA AMCOS CEO Dean Ormston discussed the notion of the collecting society’s ‘monopoly’ on music licenses in Australia.

When asked if there has ever been resistance to APRA’s authorised monopoly or talks of a duopoly, Ormston clarified that while APRA AMCOS recognises its power in the marketplace, it is also aware of the large responsibility accompanying it.

“We voluntarily take ourselves to the ACCC, the watchdog for competition, to say we’re the only people in the market in this territory who do what we do,” he said.

Working with the ACCC, Ormston said, ensures APRA AMCOS is providing a public benefit.

“By providing a public benefit, that’s a benefit to our members and also to our licensees,” he said.

The authorisation process with the ACCC also allows members, licensees and anyone else, an opportunity to provide feedback and express their views on APRA AMCOS’ behaviour in the industry.

“Like any of those sorts of processes, you learn a lot about yourself,” he said. “You might think you’re doing well in a particular market, until you hear back from people who have said, ‘No, I’m not happy…’”

Check out Dean Ormston discussing APRA’s monopoly here:

Dissimilarly to Australia, the US has four music licensing companies. While Ormston does acknowledge the benefit of choice artists and licensees have in the US, he also said the standard for most territories is to have one company. And for good reason.

“The reason for that is, it is the most efficient,” he said.

In Ormston’s view, having multiple companies doing the same thing in terms of distributing money to members would create over-complication in the system.

“In the Australian context, we’ve gone dramatically the other way, to try and make it as simple as possible.”

APRA AMCOS entered a joint initiative with PPCA to create OneMusic Australia in 2019, in an effort to simplify the music licensing process.

Ormston said they launched OneMusic Australia to say, “It should be a one-stop shop for most licensees, keep it simple.”

“It also means we can keep the administration to the bare minimum, minimise those costs, and maximise the return going back to songwriters and recording artists,” he said.

Ormston maintained the fact APRA AMCOS is the only society of its kind in Australia is something “[APRA] never takes for granted.”

“We understand we hold a monopoly position, and it is incumbent on us to always prove we provide a benefit.”

“I think things like your satisfaction rating from your members, your expense-to-revenue ratio, the launch of OneMusic that provides a better service to licensees… I would hope it’s those things that are the measures of success.”