UPDATE: CMS AND MECHANICAL RIGHTS

By Gus Jansen, Chief Information Officer, APRA

It is now some time since the Clearance Facility was launched; the first production was added to the database at 2:59pm on July 2, 2001. The system was adequate (a good deal less than perfect) when it was first released, but has evolved and matured over time as a result of feedback from both publishers' and clients' staff, and from our own staff.

CMS/CF was initially conceived as a conduit between the major record companies and the publishers, with the sole aim of increasing the publishers' revenue from Mechanical Rights. This objective was realised, and CMS/CF was expanded to become the foundation for a new Mechanical Right licensing and distribution system. The AMCOS client record companies are registering their production in CF, and publishers have unprecedented levels of access to production information.

All production information is being added to CMS and, when indicated, is automatically "sent to" the existing AMCOS Mechanical Right system (AREV).

A project was recently commenced whereby the major record companies are providing their back-catalogue to CMS/CF; the 7,000 productions included will take about a year to process completely. By about March 2005 CMS will have complete track details for almost all recordings sold in Australasia.

In building the licensing component of CMS/RL (Reproduction Licensing) we decided to redesign the interface that handles client information. APRA-AMCOS now has an integrated, "business neutral" client system that is used for all lines of business, across the companies, and for all types of clients - general performance, broadcasting, record companies, production houses, etc. A single client can be a customer of both APRA and AMCOS, and hold many different licenses.

We've finished building and testing the Sales Reporting component for CMS/RL; clients can send their sales data in text files, spreadsheets, on paper, or in a formal EDI format. This information is imported into the database, and - when verified - becomes the input to the invoicing process.

We have also completed the Invoicing process for Category-2 clients (those whose licenses require payment based on sales, rather than manufactured volumes). This is currently being tested.