2015 Annual MPA Meeting

The annual meeting of the Music Publishers Association (MPA) took place in New York City on Friday, June 19th.

A highlight of the day’s events included the presentation of awards. MPA honored Congressmen Jerrold Nadler & Hakeem Jeffries with the Arnold Broido Award for Copyright Advocacy. Peermusic composer, Mohammed Fairouz, presented the Lifetime Achievement Award to Ralph Peer II, chairman and CEO of peermusic. MPA Paul Revere Awards for Graphic Excellence were presented for multiple categories related to cover design and notation.

Lead by MPA President Kathleen Marsh, CEO of Musicnotes.com, many guest speakers presented to the attendees:

– David Israelite, CEO and president of the National Music Publishers’ Association (NMPA), delivered a report on the state of the music publishing industry.

– Natalie Madaj, legal council for licensing and enforcement for NMPA, gave an update on the joint anti-piracy program that is co-sponsored by MPA. Over the last year, take down notices were sent to 18,954 URLs and 81 percent of them have reviewed the infringing material.

– John Raso, vice president for Client Services at Harry Fox Agency, presented information on new licensing streams for publishers.

– Kim Gerlach, manager of content partnerships for YouTube offered a presentation entitled, “YouTube 101 for Music Publishers.”

– Bill Aicher, digital strategist for Musicnotes.com, presented a session called “Going Digital: Building Blocks for a Successful Online Environment.”

– A demonstration of StaffPad, a new notation app, was made by developer Matthew

Tesch.

In 2010 the National Music Council and MPA created a Copyright Awareness Scholarship. Applicants submit in video format a creative presentation on the importance of intellectual property and copyright law. The finalist’s videos were viewed during the afternoon session.

Photo: Congressman Jerrold Nadler, Congressman Hakeem Jeffries, Sean Patrick Flahaven.