As you read this Australia and, hopefully, New Zealand, are on the cusp of emerging from the enforced 20-month COVID-19 hibernation. For many in our community – our songwriter, composer and publisher members as well as industry colleagues and licensees - the 2020-21 year has been dire. Full recovery will take some time. As we’ve said publicly and to governments repeatedly, the live music and entertainment industry was one of the first to be impacted by lockdowns and will be the last allowed to re-open at full capacity. We will see the impact of this ‘lag’ beyond the context of this report.
Our 2020-21 Year in Review report reflects the dichotomy of the contemporary music industry – a digital business that continues a trajectory of strong growth, despite COVID, as against live music performance which has been completely obliterated.
The APRA AMCOS Group reported a revenue record of just over half a billion dollars, $506.9m, with key contributing factors being the growth in audio and video on demand streaming services, both locally and through our multi-territorial licensing hub. The positive Group result included a record international revenue result of $60.2m, reflecting the success of Australian and New Zealand songwriters and composers internationally. AMCOS also recorded a milestone revenue result of $147.0m. APRA AMCOS' net distributable revenue increased 8.7% in a year where gross revenue increased 6.8%. APRA AMCOS’ Group expense to revenue ratio for the year was 12.68%.
I note that for many of our songwriter and composer members, especially those reliant on live performance royalties, the overall success of the company will not have translated to a direct personal benefit. It has never been more important to advocate for and support the breadth of our membership, songwriters, composers and publishers alike, and the future health and potential of the Australian and New Zealand music industries.
The Year in Review details the breadth of our advocacy and activity in supporting our songwriter, composer and publisher members and the wider industry – from direct support through our Sustainability Fund, to evolving online programs and performance opportunities. Advocacy largely focused on COVID support, but also addressed live music regulatory reform, and attempts to erode copyright (which persist).
Jenny Morris’ address at the National Press Club in Canberra set the tone for our longer-term advocacy, providing a ‘moonshot’ vision for our industry based on smart cross-government portfolio policy and industry-government co-investment.
We’ve worked with governments to try and secure the best possible support for COVID-impacted music creators, music businesses and workers. We’ve made government submissions, participated in inquiries and hearings and advocated regulatory reform.
We’ve led and partnered with industry colleagues in discussion and action to drive momentum and positive change to representation, equity and safety for all in our industry.
I’d like to take this opportunity to express my gratitude and thanks to all our staff working across Australia and New Zealand and our overseas representatives, who have gone above and beyond to help us collectively define a new way of working over the past 12 months. We continue to listen and look for the best ways to serve you, our members.
As both Australia and New Zealand emerge from COVID, and we head towards an Australian Federal Government election, it’s critical that we use the power of our individual and collective voice to champion culture and creative industries, and specifically the cultural and economic value of music.
6.8% increase
8.7% increase
$506.9m up from $474.5m last year, an increase of 6.8%
The highs and lows of the global pandemic played out across our broad portfolio of revenue sources. Lockdowns, restrictions and border closures halted the means to earn a living for so many of our gigging members. At the same time, people’s appetite for music streaming and video-on-demand, especially as a comfort in tough times, showed digital revenue to be pandemic proof.
Revenue by source FY21 vs FY20
$60.2m up from $54.4m last year, an increase of 10.7%
A great result considering the impact of the pandemic, and initial projections of substantial revenue decline around the world.
Our members have faced myriad challenges in the past year. The ability to adapt, innovate, advocate and continue to create in the face of uncertainty is to be applauded.
The global pandemic has had a detrimental impact locally on the royalties and livelihoods of members who perform year-round at venues and festivals across Australia and New Zealand.
We continue to strive to find new and improved ways to support members in their creative and business endeavours, to keep the royalties flowing and to foster meaningful opportunities.
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Music Office Sustainability Fund
Made possible through funding provided by the Australian Government
Live Stream Performance Reports
APRA AMCOS for Music Creators app
New Publisher Portal
New websites in Australia and New Zealand
The last year has been a major challenge in our exhaustive work in advocating for our members and the broader music ecosystem. Government relations has been dominated by the disastrous impact of COVID-19 on APRA AMCOS’ membership and the wider music industry.
July 2020
Following the June release of APRA AMCOS’ industry Open Letter; and subsequent announcement of $250 million in grants and low-interest loans, advocacy in July focused on the extension and expansion of the JobKeeper program to include artists, sole-traders and music businesses. On 22 July the Government announced a review into the scheme with a decision to extend it until March 2021.
As local outbreaks of the virus occurred as part of a national suppression strategy, APRA AMCOS continued work with industry colleagues on state and territory governments and the support they can provide the local industry and existing cultural infrastructure.
September 2020
On 20 September the Victorian Government announced another round of initiatives, including grants of more than $13 million which included survival cash injections for more than 100 live music venues and grants to support music jobs on stage and behind the scenes. Similar schemes were announced in a number of state and territory jurisdictions, including a NSW Government announcement committing $24 million for live music venue.
March 2021
With the JobKeeper program ending in March 2021 and continuing lockdowns, the sector’s goals for restart remained impossible. APRA AMCOS coordinated industry collaboration to lobby government for support and on Thursday 25 March the Australian Government announced an additional $125 million in funding for the live music, entertainment and arts sector. Support Act also received a further $10 million for their crisis relief and mental health support.
APRA Chair Jenny Morris was invited by the National Press Club to give an address on the Australian music industry on 5 August. The address was followed by an industry panel discussion moderated by Sabra Lane (ABC AM) with APRA AMCOS Ambassadors John Watson (Eleven Music), Sophie Payten (Gordi) and Sukhdeep Singh Bhogal (L-FRESH The LION). There was also a music performance from APRA AMCOS Ambassador Ngaiire.
The speech called for a long-term plan for Australia’s music industry. There is enormous potential for the industry to become a net exporter of music if we get the policy settings around education, live music, content quotas and a whole-of-government approach right.
APRA AMCOS’ submission to the House of Representatives Inquiry in the Creative Industries articulated a vision in line with the Chair’s address to the National Press Club on 5 August for Australia to become a net exporter of music.
In line with this goal, we proposed the following four priorities:
APRA Chair Jenny Morris and CEO Dean Ormston also appeared at a hearing of the Inquiry on 13 November together with Leah Flanagan, Director of the National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Music Office and recently appointed Ambassador Sophie Payten (Gordi).
APRA AMCOS and the Australian Guild of Screen Composers worked together on a joint submission to the Australian Government’s review into the future of the screen sector, in collaboration with other screen industry guilds and associations.
We also worked closely with the Guild on a joint submission to the Australian Government’s Media Reform Green Paper, highlighting key issues relating to local content obligations for Free To Air TV and Streaming Video on Demand (SVOD), as well as some concerning proposals around offsets for documentary materials.
APRA AMCOS CEO Dean Ormston and Guild President Antony Partos went to Canberra to advocate on our opposition to the Government’s Broadcasting Legislation Amendment (2021 Measures No.1) Bill 2021. Concerns were raised regarding proposed changes to the Producer Offset around a new cap on copyright licensing expenses.
Following intense lobbying by APRA AMCOS and the Live Music Office, the NSW Parliament progressed the biggest overhaul of regulations around live music and cultural activity in NSW in a generation. This included coordinated changes to the Liquor Act, Planning Act, Local Government Act, the Building Code as well as emergency COVID-19 placemaking for food, drink and entertainment activation.
The amendments that passed in November 2020 include:
Advisory work with other jurisdictions including Queensland, ACT, Northern Territory and Victoria around best practice regulation also continued.
In Aotearoa, APRA AMCOS continued to take part in collaborative industry-wide advocacy on behalf of the music community, including:
The New Zealand government announced the Arts and Culture COVID Recovery Programme in late May 2020, which included initiatives to support the recovery of the music sector, and these initiatives have begun rolling out over the past 12 months, including:
APRA AMCOS firmly believes that broad representation is the key to a safer and more inclusive and respectful music industry. This is reflected in our recently published Equity Action Plan.
The plan was developed under the mentorship of Diversity Arts Australia over the first half of 2021, which commenced with a Diversity Audit and included extensive training for APRA AMCOS staff and for Board members, provided by specialists sourced by Diversity Arts Australia.
Our program was modelled on the highly successful Fair Play program that Diversity Arts Australia developed in partnership with the Victorian Music Development Office.
The plan focuses on how we can embed diversity and deliberate inclusion in our work practices and in how we engage with our members and other stakeholders. Our roadmap includes collecting more data for a deeper understanding of our membership across race, gender and disability.
Our intention is to implement actions that will achieve positive impact for our broadly representative stakeholders as measured by change in seven key elements:
Gillian Dunn (pictured) was appointed Senior Manager, Culture & Engagement in the People & Culture team to demonstrate our strategic commitment to prioritising representation and inclusion across all aspects of our business. In this new role, Gill, who was most recently Senior Manager, Publisher Relations, will champion representation, safety and inclusion as key pillars of our organisational culture. She will also deliver initiatives, coaching and training internally to build behaviours that support these pillars. Gill will work to position APRA AMCOS as a champion of culture change in our music ecosystem.
Leah Flanagan (pictured) was promoted to Director of the National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Music Office (NATSIMO) highlighting the importance of this role in setting the strategic priorities for APRA AMCOS and supporting our existing and future Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander members.
Kirti Jacobs (pictured) was promoted to Head of People and Culture reflecting our commitment to representation and inclusion as a critical business strategy that has a real and positive impact on our workforce, performance, innovation and reputation. The People and Culture function has been leading the collaboration with leadership and teams to develop representation, equity, safety and inclusion strategies. We are embedding these into our recruitment, onboarding, retention, wellbeing and employee engagement practices, while simultaneously establishing an inclusive environment that will sustain these practices long-term. We’re doing this through awareness-raising, training and establishing feedback mechanisms to enable continuous improvement.
APRA AMCOS is a signee of the Diversity Council of Australia’s #IStandForRespect pledge. We have actively and wholeheartedly supported the Request for Proposal and Tender Review process that has been managed by the voluntary interim working group set up in May 2021. We look forward to partnering with the group and our colleagues in the Australian music industry to enable the work of the appointed independent consultant in conducting a broad-ranging, intersectional and inclusive review and in identifying strategies for a safer and more inclusive Australian music industry. That work is expected to commence in late 2021/early 2022.
We are reviewing our harassment and harm prevention policies and developing a new framework to communicate and support our standards for safe and respectful participation in APRA AMCOS Awards, events and initiatives. This framework will include a Statement of Expectations for participants in all APRA AMCOS events initiatives and Awards. We have also partnered with Rape & Domestic Violence Services Australia to build the capability of our frontline staff in responding to disclosures of sexual harassment and in constructive bystander intervention. Rape & Domestic Violence Services Australia have also reviewed and provided feedback on our policy framework and procedures and we are currently integrating this feedback to ensure our response framework is survivor-centric and trauma informed.
On the gender composition of our workforce and on equal remuneration, APRA AMCOS conducts an annual review, based on criteria developed by the Workplace Gender Equality Agency (WGEA). Our 2021 review established that we perform very well against the Australian market generally, as measured against the WGEA February 2021 issue of Australia’s Gender Pay Gap Statistics:
The WGEA Gender Pay Gap is a measure of women’s overall position in the paid workforce and does not compare like roles. APRA AMCOS conducts a like-for-like salary review to identify pay gaps and the more granular data shows any pay gap is minimal and is likely due to seniority or time in the role. For example, the APRA AMCOS full time gender pay gap falls to 3.6% when management roles are removed from the calculation.
We also perform well at representation of women in management roles overall, with 47.5% of all management roles at APRA AMCOS being held by women. This compares positively with the overall Australian workforce composition of only 39.9% of manager roles being held by women (WGEA Gender Equality Scorecard, November 2020).
Beyond the organisation-wide work of the Equity Action Plan, in 2020 APRA AMCOS NZ took a leadership role in the formation of SoundCheck Aotearoa, an action group with the aim of fostering a safe and inclusive culture in the music industry. The group has spent the past 12 months:
The formation of SoundCheck Aotearoa occurred alongside and in response to the Amplify Aotearoa research and report into barriers and challenges experienced by songwriters and artists in New Zealand - a collaboration between Massey University and APRA AMCOS NZ. Gender emerged as a key factor impacting opportunities, barriers, and experiences of discrimination, highlighting the need for analysis on intersectional issues that impact gender diversity, alongside challenges and discrimination based on other factors, such as ethnicity, age, disability and sexuality.
Alongside our Pītau Whakarewa (Māori Music Growth and Development Leader) Dame Hinewehi Mohi (pictured), we also furthered the creation of a bi-lingual music industry. Dubbed ORO, the cross-agency initiative is supported by Creative New Zealand and the Māori Language Commission - Te Taura Whiri i te Reo Māori, with the aim of enriching our cultural identity and changing the way New Zealanders create and consume music performed in te reo Māori. The strands of this initiative include supporting collaborative songwriting of new waiata via Reo Māori SongHubs, facilitating translation of waiata with the help of Mātanga Reo, and work on our own data integrity and collation for legacy waiata.
APRA writer members 2020-2021