MPA elects new chairman and deputy chairman
Nigel Elderton (managing director, peermusic (UK) Ltd) was yesterday (24 June) elected unopposed as chairman of the MPA at the Association’s AGM. Elderton replaces Nicholas Riddle who had assumed the position of chairman after Paul Curran stepped down in May.
Accepting the position Elderton said, “Having worked for both ‘major’ publishers and an international independent I believe that I have a good appreciation of the needs of all MPA members, both large and small and understand well that the MPA, as your trade association, must continue to be relevant to its members and fit for purpose in an era which will see seismic changes in the way our rights are licensed and remunerated. As MPA chairman I would hope to give Stephen the necessary support and direction that he needs to continue the valuable work that he does in representing the UK publishing industry”.
Chris Butler (COO, Music Sales Ltd) was elected as deputy chairman at the same meeting, which also saw presentations from Stephen Navin (chief executive, MPA) Steve Porter (CEO, MCPS-PRS Alliance) and Feargal Sharkey (CEO, British Music Rights).
Navin used the occasion to laud the resilience of music publishers: “[Publishers are] like the resourceful cockroach that they say will survive the nuclear winter. If our industry collapses around us, if the copyright regime comes tumbling down, and writers and performers walk Tin Pan Alley abandoned forlorn and penniless, the fruits of their creativity pulped into binary briquettes and packets by the enormous appetite of the internet , they would be given succour, not by the priest, or the Levite but by the Samaritan publisher.”
To view the full text of Navin's speech, grab a thesaurus, and click the file below.
AGM 2008-SN's speech.pdfAGM_2008-SNs_speech.pdf
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