OneMusic Australia to simplify music licensing
APRA AMCOS and PPCA have have responded directly to the administration needs of hundreds of thousands of music users in Australia by announcing the development of a single public performance licensing scheme.
OneMusic Australia is set to be rolled out during the second half of 2018 in Australia and will cover both recorded and musical works rights.
Accompanying the new scheme will be an eCommerce facility that will provide a much simpler process for obtaining, managing, reporting on and paying for the licences they need for their businesses, on the assumption that they are OneMusic customers.
Head of Revenue at APRA AMCOS, Richard Mallet, told TMN “the more we can correctly license Australian businesses who trade on music by simplifying the process of compliance, the greater the flow of remuneration to Australian music creators and, indeed, those who earn a living from their activity – publishers, labels, venues, roadies, hospitality staff.
“This, combined with higher operational efficiencies will mean a giant step forward for Australian music.”
The introduction of the new scheme will follow OneMusic NZ which was created and established three years ago, much to the delight of NZ-based licensors.
Lynne Small, General Manager, PPCA, said, “In the last three years we have been monitoring, with a great deal of interest, the successful launch of OneMusic NZ, a much smaller territory and therefore providing an ideal test market.
“PPCA and APRA AMCOS already partner on a number of licence schemes in various sectors such as retail and early education. OneMusic Australia presents an opportunity for a much broader approach to simplified public performance licensing.”
The two industry rights management organisations are currently involved in open discussions with the Australian Consumer and Competition Commission (ACCC) and other partners.
These conversations will surely continue over the next 18 months as the organisations decide on the best approache to merging two existing licensing structures equitably and efficiently, a challenging yet imperative task.