online music com - APRA

PROFESSIONAL
DEVELOPMENT AWARD
CHONG-NEE’S TRIP TO
THE STATES.
I caught up with Huia Hamon from Kog, who
confirmed John Chong-Nee (our 2007
Professional Development Award recipient) will
be heading to the States in June/July to scope
out the American R’n’B scene and showcase
his original Pacific flavour, supported by APRA.
John will be joined by Chris Chetland and they
will be meeting with long time friends and expat
Kiwi’s such as Kirk Harding of Universal/
Motown. They have also made major links with
American international artists in L.A. and New
York to shop beats and set up future
collaborations. Huia says that “both Chong-
Nee and Chris are contributing toward a
stronger network for our Pacific flavoured hiphop
and R’n’B as well as establishing new
hook ups through this journey”.
I also talked with John and he confirmed
some of the artists he will be meeting with, who
include Monsta Gunjah, Booyah Tribe, Gangsta
Ridd, Dru Down, Yuck Mouth and K-Ci (from K-
ci and Jojo). John has been in touch with most
of these artists by email, prior to this trip and
says that “cos their work ethics are totally
different, it’s fast, the people I’m dealing with
are always wanting new music from me, but it’s
funny when they start saying stuff like, ‘CAN
YOU SEND IT NOW! CAN WE HAVE IT
NOW!!?, HAVE YOU SENT IT YET!!?, WHEN
ARE YOU SENDING IT!??’ its funny because,
we’ll be just talking about songs, and I haven’t
even made the song yet! But I know its gonna
be good, just gonna do my best and give them
my best.” When asked about his expectations
for this trip, John says “no expectations really,
just knowing I’ll be working with these people is
overwhelming, I just hope I do justice…”
We know that John will be fantastic and we
can’t wait to hear the results of his collaborations
with the USA artists. Our next edition of APRAP
will include more details from John Chong-Nee
about his USA experience. We will also
announce details later in the year in regards to
the 2009 Professional Development Award.
DIGITAL DOWNLOADS
One of the most frequently asked questions is
“how to I get royalties from digital downloads?”
And the answer is “through APRA and
AMCOS”. You need to be a member of both
societies, APRA (for the performing right) and
AMCOS (for the mechanical right). In the
majority of cases, the writers say “I am an
APRA member but not an AMCOS member”.
If this is the case for you – then you are
missing out on your mechanical royalties,
which are the more significant earnings from
this type of use. Basically, you need to be an
AMCOS member to receive these royalties.
This is because the digital service providers,
due to the volume of music involved, have
decided not to directly pay individual
songwriters and composers the mechanical
royalties and are paying the earnings direct to
AMCOS for them to allocate.
How do you join? Simply contact the APRA
office and ask for an AMCOS application pack
and complete the application form. AMCOS
membership is flexible and you specify the
areas of income that you want AMCOS to
administer for you – which will reflect how your
music is being reproduced (recordings,
ringtones, downloads etc). Where possible, we
would also suggest coming to our office to
complete your AMCOS membership
application and to discuss your options in
person. Please contact me in regards to any
AMCOS membership queries.
USE OF YOUR SONGS IN
FILM & TELEVISION
Have you been approached recently to place
your song in a film or in a television episode?
What terms did you negotiate? Did you sign a
synchronisation agreement? For this type of
use, we strongly recommend having a written
agreement in place and this would be referred
to as a synchronisation agreement.
Here are the key details that you should
include in your agreement:
• the production title
• the title of the musical work and the names
of the copyright owners (plus confirmation
that these details are within the
productions credits)
• the type of use: background, featured or
theme music
• type of media involved (TV, film, DVD etc)
• details of the usage: duration, how the work
is used within the production
• the term of use, including commencement date
• the territory involved
• the fee paid for this use
Contact me for a sample synchronisation
agreement or to discuss the use of your music
in film or television productions.
Have Your Say…
We will be contacting you soon
about a member survey in regards
to our services. We conduct
these surveys with the aim of
obtaining information to assess
our existing services and to plan
new services for the future. We
work for you, so please take the
time to return the survey and
have your say about the services
we provide.
ELECTRONIC ROYALTIES
APRA will cease making royalty payments by
cheque from 1 January 2009, to streamline the
royalty payment process and reduce costs. We
are therefore encouraging our members to
utilise the electronic payment option for royalty
payments now. The electronic deposits are
made directly to your nominated bank account,
making the payments safe and secure. You will
have immediate access to your earnings and
within each distribution you are the first
members to be paid.
To take up this payment option – please
provide your banking details to the Member
Services team directly, or complete and return
the Electronic Banking Form available on
our website.
Further to this work to limit expenses, the
decision was made to provide all royalty
statements electronically. This means your
statement and remittance advice are provided
online, accessed through our Members Login
Facility on our website. Please note both
documents will remain online for future access
for your records or for tax purposes. If you
require paper copies it is a simple matter of
printing from the website.
NZ MEMBER
SERVICES
EMAIL: nz@apra.com.au
pgeorge@apra.com.au
FREEPHONE: 0800 69 2772
WEB: www.apra.co.nz
APR AP MAY 2008
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