After years of testing, talking and tweaking, rights management organizations APRA AMCOS and PPCA have launched OneMusic Australia, a single public performance licensing system.
The new one-stop promises for its clients a much simpler process for obtaining, managing, reporting on and paying for the music licenses they require to run their businesses.
OneMusic Australia was announced two-and-a-half years ago and underwent an “extensive and ongoing” consultation process prior to its rollout on Monday (July 1). More than 50 industry associations were consulted in that time.
“It’s a win for businesses using music, and a win for music creators – songwriters, composers, recording artists, publishers and labels,” says Dean Ormston, CEO of APRA AMCOS, which collects on behalf of over 100,000 member songwriters, music publishers and composers.
Dan Rosen, CEO of PPCA, which collects on behalf of recording artists and record labels, says the initiative delivers an “improved licensing service” for music users. “This is an important step to simplify the process of using music for tens of thousands of businesses around Australia and continue our work in supporting innovation and creativity for the Australian music industry,” notes Rosen in a statement.
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Both organizations have been licensing their respective rights for decades, separately and independently of each other (APRA since 1926, PPCA since 1969). “That separation might have been logical to the music industry but it could lead to a level of confusion and frustration from our customers,” explains Ormston, “which is why we started the official process of building OneMusic Australia from the ground up in December 2016.”
According to both parties, more than 140,000 premises across the country are currently licensed to use music as part of their commercial activity. Over the next 12 months, those businesses will be contacted to relicense under OneMusic Australia, which is broken-down to 24 license types, the rates for which are “scalable”
The joint-venture system follows the introduction across the Tasman of OneMusic NZ in 2013. The Australian initiative goes live with a portal that provides a one-stop-shop and real time interaction, soon to be followed by a rollout in NZ.
APRA AMCOS and PPCA subscribe to the Australian Code of Conduct for Copyright Collecting Societies and the activities of OneMusic will also be covered by the code. APRA AMCOS will trade as OneMusic Australia, while PPCA has sub-licensed its public performance rights to the society as part of the OneMusic Australia initiative.
The development will make “compliance easier and make sure rights holders are fully remunerated for both rights when their music is played in public,” Ormston concludes. “We know many businesses found it hard to deal with two separate rights organizations and some neglected their obligations altogether. A simple, single, easy-to-use system will significantly reduce the administration burden for everyone.”
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