Australasian collecting societies APRA and AMCOS have struck an agreement to represent Universal Music Publishing in licensing the music publishing giant’s digital rights throughout Asia, excluding Japan.
The multi-territory arrangement is non-exclusive, and was announced today.
“Universal is proud to be the first music publisher to enter into a multi territory licensing and administration arrangement for the Asia Pacific region and I am really excited by the potential of this groundbreaking initiative,” comments UMP executive VP Asia Pacific and industry affairs Andrew Jenkins in a statement.
“Consumers in this part of the world want and need the widest possible access on safe, legal platforms to the world’s repertoire of music,” adds APRA/AMCOS CEO Brett Cottle, who added “this agreement is an important step in that direction and comes in direct response to pleas from digital service providers.”
Jenkins adds that he hopes ”other societies and publishers join us in this initiative to make licensing and administration simpler, faster and more effective for the benefit of songwriters, digital retailers and consumers”.
UMP’s arrangement follows similar pacts struck in recent years with French authors’ collecting society SACEM for Europe to streamline international rights clearance procedures for music.
UMP and SACEM used the platform of the 2008 MIDEM trade fair to announce a digital licensing scheme in Europe. The publisher announced at the time a joint venture with SACEM, allowing that society and France’s mechanical rights society SDRM to grant pan-European digital licensing for the publisher’s English language and French language repertoire.
