CLARE BOWDITCH - APRA

INTERNATIONALNOTES
MEMBERNEWS
Photo by >> Jan Kuczerawy
Regional cooperation on on-line
licensing.
The Asia Pacific regional offices of CISAC
(International Confederation of Societies
of Authors and Composers) and BIEM
(International Bureau for Mechanical Rights
Societies) met in Manila in September to discuss
developments and improve cooperation in
online licensing. The meeting was hosted by the
local society FILSCAP.
Copyright still young in
tech-savvy Asia-Pacific
In many territories in Asia, copyright societies
such as APRA are relatively new and the
industry infrastructure and licensing capacity
are being developed. This is in contrast to the
explosion of new digital music services that
are being rolled out in those territories. Mobile
entertainment services in places such as Japan
and Korea are leading the world.
Photo by >> Jan Kuczerawy
Indigenous arts industry
development
By Scot Morris,
Director
International
Relations, APRA
By Sally Howland,
Director Member
Services, APRA
At the time of going to press, the Australia
Council for the Arts announced that APRA would
be an industry partner in the ATSIA Board’s
Indigenous Songs Music Bound strategy.
The initiative will be developed and
implemented over two years in conjunction
with WAM (West Australian Music Industry
Association), Abmusic, Goolari Media and
Songlines. Although the strategy is still
being finalised, two key areas of focus will
be developing infrastructure and profiling
opportunities. APRA’s interests are grounded
in the belief that the rights of Indigenous
composers and songwriters should be
respected, protected and promoted. We hope
that through our efforts we will assist in the
cultural and economic development of our
Indigenous members.
Any enquiries on the above should be directed to
APRA’s Indigenous Project Officer, Ebony Williams,
on 1800 642 634.
In territories such as China – new digital
services are ‘leapfrogging’ the traditional
entertainment services, yet copyright law and
licensing are lagging behind. To address these
challenges, we have decided to meet annually
to discuss online licensing approaches in the
region and try to engage more with the huge
developing markets of China and India.
The nature of online services, their cross border
applications and the rights exercised means
that societies must cooperate closely to provide
efficient solutions for users as well as for writer
and publisher members.
US, Europe still working on
solutions
Even in countries where the copyright
infrastructure is well-established, such as the
US, Europe and Australia, there is still much
debate about the best way to manage copyright
in the digital world.
In the US, there is considerable discussion about
new digital services and the characterisation
of the rights, the applicable tariffs and the
mechanisms for collection and distribution.
There have been numerous public inquiries
and a recent surprising opinion of the Register
of Copyrights that ringtones fall within the
compulsory licence for phonorecords.
Various sectors of the European Commission
have weighed in to suggest reforms to society
practices to allow more effective pan-European
licensing of online services. The publisher EMI
Music has announced a joint venture with the
Research study – Support infrastructure
into Indigenous Music
In June, the Australia Council engaged APRA
to audit the support infrastructure available to
Indigenous music artists. The first study of its
kind undertaken at a national level, the study is
exploring the obstacles and opportunities that
Indigenous music artists face in the areas of live
performance, recording, broadcasting, public
funding and education/training.
Ebony Williams and I have conducted wide
ranging interviews with members, managers,
promoters and arts administrators all over the
country and we thank you for your support. Your
advice, opinion and experience will be invaluable
in preparing our report. We sincerely hope that
the data collection and findings will serve the
Australia Council well in developing future policy
and funding initiatives for this sector.
The report is due in February 2006. If you
would like to participate in the study, please
contact Ebony Williams on 1800 642 634.
APRA Distribution News
iTunes
Our 43B distribution, for the period January
– June 2006, is the first APRA distribution to
includ e performing right royalties for digital
downloads. APRA is the first society in the world
to fully process sales reports from iTunes in the
new worldwide standard DDEX format developed
by CISAC, IFPI, copyright societies and DSP’s.
The increasing popularity of digital download
services presents significant challenges to
collecting societies in terms of developing
systems and appropriate mechanisms
UK and German societies for pan-European
online licensing. There has recently been a
settlement on part of the Copyright Tribunal
Hearing on the on-line rates in the UK, but there
are still proceedings on foot in Germany and
Canada on download rates. It will be interesting
to monitor how these and other European
projects pan out (pun intended) and impact on
music rights administration in other regions.
Manila meetings map the way
ahead
The Manila meetings discussed international
developments such as these and allowed an
exchange of ideas on new digital services
coming on line and licensing approaches.
We discussed approaches to auditing online
services, new mobile applications in Korea and
Japan and the possibility of a jointly funded
Asian WebCrawler to identify infringing and
licensable sites and services. We are now
looking at systems and procedures for dealing
with distribution of the “long tail” of new
repertoire that appears on online services.
The recent commercialisation of the social
networking sites myspace and YouTube were
high on the agenda, as was the proposal of
the Australian government to provide free
exceptions in the law to allow private copying.
In response to requests from pan-Asian services
that are now being developed, we are discussing
how we can effectively and efficiently grant
territorial licences for the benefit of the services
and copyright owners alike.
for efficiently and accurately processing
increasingly large volumes of data. For example,
including digital downloads has seen an increase
of approximately 25% of new works for payment
in this distribution alone. APRA|AMCOS’
challenge and priority is to deliver effective
distribution systems and services at acceptable
costs to our members.
Commercial TV
43B included a full census analysis of Channel
7 and 10 programs from the Sydney, Perth,
Brisbane, Adelaide and Melbourne capital city
stations. Discussions are still underway with
Channel 9 and we are hoping to commence full
census for Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane
programming from July 2006. The Southern
Broadcasting Network will commence census
analysis from 1 January 2007.
MIDEM 2007
APRA is again supporting the Australian stand
at MIDEM 2007. MIDEM is the largest businessto-business
tradeshow in the music industry.
Each January, nearly 10,000 music professionals
from almost 100 countries and from all sectors
- including recording, publishing, live, sync,
digital and mobile - meet at MIDEM to network,
learn and discover new talent.
With the assistance of Austrade, ‘Australia at
MIDEM’ will mark a new stage in Australia’s
presence at this fair.
To register your interest, contact Matthew Proft
at Austrade Sydney on 02 9390 2084 or email:
matthew.proft.@austrade.gov.au
Michelle O’Donnell
Photo by >> Jan Kuczerawy
Raymond Longford’s classic
Australian silent film, The
Sentimental Bloke commenced
its tour to the USA, Canada
and Japan on 1 September.
Premiering in 1919, the
film survived nearly eight
decades before being fully
reconstructed in 1997 by a
team from the NFSA and
George Eastman House in the
US. The film will be screened
with musical accompaniment
by JEN ANDERSON AND
THE LARRIKINS at festivals
in Telluride, Washington DC,
Rochester, Montreal, Berkeley
and Tokyo. More info: Laura
Heron 02 9321 6461 or laura.
heron@afc.gov.au
It has been a month of accolades
and achievements for ROLF DE
HEER and Ten Canoes. As well
as the film becoming Australia’s
official entry for nomination
consideration for Best Foreign
Language Film at the 79th
Annual Academy Awards, de
Heer was awarded the Silver
Medallion at the Telluride
Film Festival. Ten Canoes
then screened at the Toronto
International Film Festival, and
de Heer then flew direct to
Brisbane to pick up the 2006
Queensland Premier’s Literary
Award for the film’s script.
SCREENWRAP
Michelle O’Donnell, Manager, Film and TV Writers, APRA
BRETT ROSENBERG has released his orchestral
score to Half Light through Moviescore Media
(go to www.moviescoremedia.com/index.html.)
The score has also received some very positive
reviews: “The score, however, is absolutely
stunning...a multitude of beautiful themes, each
performed superbly, and some shockingly
violent dissonance, its importance within the
film itself is immeasurable,” (full review - www.
moviemusicuk.us/halflightcd.htm.) Brett was
also nominated for best original score at our
recent screen awards.
Blue Mountains based composer JUSTIN HUNTER
scored an IF Awards nomination for his music
in the Rob Marsala film 48 Shades. The film is
distributed through Buena Vista International and
the soundtrack is out on Universal Records. Both
his cds are available at www.justinhunter.com.au.
BRYONY MARKS is working on her first feature
film score for the film Noise, directed by Matthew
Saville and due to be released next year.
MICK HARVEY, celebrated arranger, multiinstrumentalist,
producer, film soundtrack
composer and co-founder of Nick Cave &
The Bad Seeds and The Birthday Party has
released a second compilation of film music
entitled Motion Picture Music ‘94-’05. This new
compilation offers music including Lighting Fires
(1994), a documentary of Sydney based painter
Tim Storrier, Frank Hurley - The Man Who Made
History (2004), Sparrow (1996) a short film
>> Justin Hunter
by Australian director Polly Watkins; and the
infamous Chopper (2000) directed by Andrew
Dominic. From Europe: Rien Ne Vas Plus (2005)
a German ‘Photo Film’’ by Katja Pratschke and
Gusztav Hamos featured at the 2006 Venice Film
Festival.
AMANDA BROWN is currently composing for
a feature film called Monkey Puzzle and is cowriting
a song with David Hobson for another
feature called December Boys.
>> Brett Rosenberg >> Amanda Brown and Simon Marnie.
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