IFPI’s 2024 Asia-Pacific Music Licensing Company Meeting: PRM Participates in Reinforcing the Beat of Southeast Asian CMOs

PRM Head of Licensing, Francis Buen, giving his presentation

BANGKOK, THAILAND - Last October at the Anantara Riverside Bangkok Resort Hotel in Thailand, PRM’s Head of Licensing, Francis Buen, participated in the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry’s (IFPI) 2024 Asia-Pacific Music Licensing Company (MLC) meeting. IFPI is an organization that represents the interests of the global recording industry and serves as its voice worldwide. Its specific missions are to promote the economic value of recorded music, campaign for the intellectual property (IP) rights of record producers and help its members license and create commercial value for their work. The organization also handles global data and analysis of the music industry, global charts and certifications, legal music policy worldwide, and international content protection and enforcement of its affiliates. In addition, it partners with different CMOs from all over the world, to further strengthen the fight for proper music licensing and protection. Its Asia-Pacific MLC meeting for Southeast Asia is an annual event dedicated to strengthening the working relationships between CMOs in the region and allowing their representatives to exchange valuable information and data with one another.

This year’s IFPI Asia-Pacific MLC meeting was a two-day event that went over various music-licensing-related topics, with its Chief Legal Officer, Lauri Rechardt, present to watch over its proceedings and Head of Music Licensing for Southeast Asia, Dhanesh Jagwani, serving as its host. Head of Global Licensing Analysis, Charlie Cooksey, served as the meeting’s main speaker, as he delivered three presentations that respectively covered the music industry’s global financial analysis and projections, the topic of public performance licensing and key performance indicators (KPIs), and the challenges of broadcast licensing for radio and TV. In his presentation, he tackled IFPI’s business developments over the past year and its goals for 2026. Moreover, he specifically focused on the costs of public performance licensing, handling tariffs, market penetration, and dealing with royalty-free music suppliers. Lastly, Cooksey gave possible solutions to problems related to TV and radio broadcast licensing and went into collections and the potential of the Asia-Pacific for broadcast licensing.

Cooksey’s presentation was then reinforced and put into a Southeast Asian context with the talks from representatives of CMOs within the region. PRM’s Head of Licensing, Francis Buen, alongside Public Performance Malaysia’s (PPM) Managing Director, Caren Lau, gave presentations about public performance licensing in their respective countries. In addition, they shared their organizations’ backgrounds, goals, KPIs, work experiences, and marketing activities. Buen notably received positive feedback from the event’s attendees, as they praised PRM’s ability to grow and collect for its members while maintaining a vibrant and youthful marketing approach that had not been seen before in other CMOs. The Recording Industry Association of Japan’s (RIAJ) Rena Asakabe, and the Managing Director of Thailand’s Phonorights, Chayapach Sangtabtim, gave talks on the broadcast licensing situation for their countries and also gave an overview of the structure, functions, goals, and purposes of their organizations. In addition, Nancy Seah, the Managing Director of Music Rights Singapore Public Limited (MRSS), gave a presentation on distribution, distribution rules, KPIs, target setting, transparency, and automation tools in Singapore and Southeast Asia as a whole. A global perspective on the best practices for music licensing was also given by Markus Bos, the CEO of the Netherlands’ MLC, Sena, who proposed practices that could be applied in the region.

In the end, IFPI’s two-day MLC meeting championed protecting Intellectual Property rights in music around Southeast Asia, giving different MLCs in the region a platform to learn from each other, make important connections, and further strengthen their organizations. The event’s various presentations not only captured the current landscape of the music licensing industry, but also offered attendees a brief look at a stronger industry in the future through the learnings, suggestions, and strategies placed within them. That said, the strengthening of the music industry does not only happen in formal conventions abroad but takes place in the day-to-day operations of CMOs.

For more Philippine Music news and updates, visit www.prm.com.ph

Written by Raui Supnet