CHRIS BUTLER ELECTED MPA CHAIRMAN

Chris Butler elected MPA Chairman
MPA members voted at the meeting to elect Chris Butler as MPA Chairman. Butler, Head of Publishing - Worldwide at Music Sales Ltd had previously served three years as Deputy Chairman of the MPA, having first been elected to that post at the MPA's 2008 AGM.
Nigel Elderton, MD, peermusic (UK) Ltd was elected at the meeting as MPA Deputy Chairman. Elderton was previously MPA Chairman from June 2008 to June 2011, and is also currently Chairman of the MPA's subsidiary company MCPS.
The election of Pop Publishers to the MPA Board saw seven candidates for five places. Peter Barnes (Pink Floyd Music Publishers Ltd), Paul Connolly (Universal Music Publishing Ltd), Jane Dyball (Warner/Chappell Music Ltd), James Fitzherbert-Brockholes (Kobalt Music Publishing Ltd) and Andy Heath (4AD Music Ltd) were all re-elected to the Board having been required to retire by rotation.
The election of Classical Publishers to the MPA Board saw four candidates for four places. Chris Butler (Music Sales Ltd), Richard King (Faber Music Ltd) and Ben Newing (Universal Edition (London) Ltd) were all re-elected to the Board having been required to retire by rotation. In addition Sean Gray (Josef Weinberger Ltd) was elected to the Board for the first time.

Special Resolution
Members also voted to pass a special resolution to adopt new Memorandum and Articles of Association. In general the new Articles will achieve the following:

• Effect changes required to comply with the Companies Act 2006
• Introduce new provisions for the election of directors. In short these are: Remove the "colleges" - i.e the distinction between "Popular" and "Standard"; Each member of the MPA to have one vote whatever their category of membership; The top six earning publishers based upon their Gross Annual Income will have guaranteed places on the Board. The total number of Board members going forward will remain the same as at present, and shall comprise six "Designated Directors" and 18 "Elected Directors" and the Chief Executive.
• Update certain other provisions

Speeches to the AGMResolution
The formal business of the AGM included reports from outgoing MPA Chairman Nigel Elderton (full text here ), Stephen Navin (Chief Executive, MPA) and, in his capacity as executive director of the MPA's subsidiary company MCPS, Robert Ashcroft (Chief Executive, PRS for Music).
Navin said of collective rights management: "While our own excellent MCPS and PRS have striven to be among the most efficient and user friendly societies in the world, the unfortunate reality is that outside of the UK the practices of monopoly collective rights managers have resulted in abuses against our members which include high commission rates, outdated IT systems and unfair distribution policies including cultural deductions imposed on the earnings of UK composers and publishers but distributed only to the members of the society imposing the deduction".
Addressing the need to facilitate multi-territory licensing, Navin asked: "Do we think that pan European and global licensing can only be effective if there is one central database? Is not one of the major obstacles in transaction based licensing that each of the licensors has a different data picture of the rights that they believe they control? Does not the Global Repertoire Database make absolute sense?"
Navin expressed frustration at the slow progress towards implementation of the Digital Economy Act, commenting: "It is a devoutly to be wished for no-brainer that ultimately all stakeholders, including the ISPs and the search engines, will work together to protect each other's legitimate interests to the overall benefit of the digital ecosystem as a whole".

MPA Richard Toeman Scholarship
Nigel Elderton presented the 2011 MPA Richard Toeman Scholarship Awards to joint winners Fiona Bolton and Louisa Rainbird. The annual scholarship, now in its sixth year, is designed to encourage those who are new to the business, and those who are seeking to join the business, and who are committed to a career in music publishing.

Sir Peter Maxwell Davies
Following the formal business of the AGM the audience of MPA members and invited guests listened to Sir Peter Maxwell Davies, Master of the Queen's Music in conversation with broadcaster Matthew Bannister. Sir Peter gave a fascinating insight into his own life and work as a composer, and also shared his thoughts on the importance of musical education, saying: "There are pressures on young people, and a lot of them don't have the opportunity of singing in groups, or of making music in groups. Playing music is a communal experience. It is one of the best disciplines that a young person can have individually for spiritual opening up and for musical opening up". Sir Peter also revealed his "love and respect" for a select band of pop songwriters, including Paul McCartney, Annie Lennox, and "a handful of others".

The Trial of St Cecilia
To round off the afternoon's events the PRS for Music Boardroom was transformed into the Berners St Court for proceedings in the case of Regina v. St Cecilia (t/a The Patron Saint of Music), with Judge Stephen Navin presiding.
Andy Heath (MD, Beggars Music) defended St Cecilia against a number of charges, including: permitting the use of music in such ways as to encourage moral turpitude, dissolution and degeneracy amongst the young; and the murder of Silence. Additional testimony for the defence was provided by distinguished songwriter Barry Mason. Counsel for the prosecution was Mark Pemberton (Director, Association of British Orchestras), who called as his witness Leslie East (Executive Director, ABRSM). Having heard entertaining arguments on both sides the Jury (composed of the audience) delivered a verdict of not guilty of all charges.

A selection of photographs from the day can be viewed here .

We will be posting videos from the AGM to the members section of the MPA website shortly.

MPA Richard Toeman Scholarship Founding Donors: ABRSM (Publishing) Ltd; Ariel Music; Bourne Music Ltd; Bug Music Ltd; Catalyst Music Publishing Ltd; EMI Music Publishing Ltd; Menace Music Ltd; Mute Song Ltd; Rock Music Company Ltd; Silva Screen Music (Publishers) Ltd; Songstream Music; Sony/ATV Music Publishing (UK) Ltd; SJ Music; Stainer & Bell Ltd; Woza Music.