By Mark Eades, Manager Publisher Services APRA|AMCOS
Effective from 1 February, APRA|AMCOS departments were restructured in an effort to bring together sections performing similar work processes which had previously been spread across different departments, or sections whose functions were more suitably placed in a different department. A primary goal of this restructure was the integration of related APRA and AMCOS administration processes.
CEO Brett Cottle says "The changes allow for a greater emphasis to be given to the management of our various member and client relationships – whether it be with record label clients, broadcaster clients or writer and publisher members. We have streamlined the points of contact, developing more of a ‘one stop shop’ for both our members and our licensees."
The main changes of relevance to publisher members are as follows:
Publisher Services
The Publisher Services area of the Member Services department is now responsible for handling all publisher members’ queries relating to APRA|AMCOS business.
Queries which members would previously direct to the Mechanical Distribution department regarding AMCOS distribution payments and statements should now be directed to me (Manager Publisher Services).
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Publisher Services is now also responsible for mechanical rights copyright ownership administration, having acquired the Mechanical Catalogue Administrators, Russell Tainton (far left) and Matt Barber, from the Distribution department (Matt replaced former Mech Catalogue Administrator Veronika Zaharieva in January). We welcome Russell and Matt to Publisher Services. |
The acquisition of mechanical rights copyright ownership administration by Publisher Services presents an opportunity for us to provide a single point of contact for publisher members at APRA|AMCOS for both performing and mechanical rights queries (your Publisher Representative) – many of our publisher members have expressed a desire for this in interviews and forums over previous years. It is therefore my intention to dispense with the existing division between performing and mechanical rights copyright ownership administration as soon as possible. However, because there is not enough time to properly familiarise the existing Publisher Representatives and myself with the complexities of mechanical rights administration (particularly the AREV database), or to familiarise the Mechanical Catalogue Administrators with performing rights administration, without compromising the APRA 44A and AMCOS 0703 distributions, the existing division of responsibilities will remain in place until after these distributions have been processed in April/May.
Because the eventual alignment of performing and mechanical rights administration will increase the workload per publisher for Publisher Representatives, I will need to reshuffle the allocation of publishers to representatives in the section at that time. I will of course keep our members informed of any changes.
Please refer to the revised Publisher Member Contact Guide for updated contacts within APRA|AMCOS.
Distribution
The major achievement of the restructure for the Distribution department has been the integration of performing and mechanical rights works ownership identification functions within the newly-created Works Ownership and Works Registrations section, which were previously spread across the Completing section (performing rights) and the Clearance Facility (CF) section and other areas in the Distribution department (mechanical rights). The main implication of this for publisher members is that staff from the Clearance Facility section who would previously correspond with publishers regarding the mechanical rights ownership of works on CF productions will no longer do so; all queries relating to mechanical copyright ownership are now handled by the Mechanical Catalogue Administrators in Publisher Services.
Recordings and Online Services
The Clearance Facility section has been moved from Distribution to the Recordings and Online Services department (formerly known as Mechanical Licensing), in order to integrate functions relating to AMCOS clients/licensees. The CF section is now primarily concerned with the submission of production information by clients and the issuing of new production notifications and prescribed notices to AMCOS clients and members, and no longer includes mechanical right works ownership identification functions which have been transferred to the Works Registration section in Distribution.
Please refer to my Departmental Restructure presentation from the Publisher Seminar that was held on 23 February for a more detailed review of the role changes resulting from the restructure.
