Held during Ivors Week, just days before The Ivors with Amazon Music, this flagship summit brings together top industry voices to empower songwriters and composers with the knowledge, connections and tools needed to thrive in the music industry.
What to expect
Podcast-style conversations – Insights from acclaimed songwriters, composers and industry experts
Interactive sessions – Delegates will get a practical toolkit to navigate industry challenges and opportunities
In-depth discussions – Topics include:
- Global music publishing
- Data and rights management
- AI’s impact on music creators
- Creator remuneration and emerging revenue streams
Speakers
- David Arnold – Multi award-winning British film and television composer, Fellow and Board Director, The Ivors Academy
- Charisse Beaumont – Chief Executive of Black Lives in Music
- Naomi Belshaw – Composer, Artist Manager and Consultant, Naomi Belshaw Consultancy
- Charlene Brown – Co-Founder and Managing Director of people intelligence company Howlett Brown and Chair of The Ivors Academy’s Ethics Committee
- Rio Caraeff – Co-President at Musixmatch
- Indi Chawla – Head of International Relations at the Mechanical Licensing Collective (The MLC)
- Paul Clements – CEO, Music Publishers Association Group
- Chris Cooke – Founder & Managing Director, CMU
- Amber Davis – SVP and Head of A&R, Warner Chappell UK
- Peter de Monnink – CEO of ICE
- Caroline Dinenage – Member of Parliament for Gosport, Chair of the Culture, Media and Sport Select Committee, House of Commons
- James Duffett-Smith – Global Head of Music Publishing, Amazon Music
- Maria Forte – Managing Director & Owner, Maria Forte Music Services Ltd
- Guy Garvey – Singer, songwriter, composer and broadcaster
- Tom Gray – Songwriter, composer and Chair of The Ivors Academy
- Mick Hayes – Chief Product and Technology Officer, ICE
- Rachael Heeley – Associate, Simpkins LLP
- David Israelite – President and CEO of the National Music Publishers’ Association
- Jack Jones – Partner, Sheridans LLP
- Golnar Khosrowshahi – Founder and CEO, Reservoir
- Michelle Lewis – Songwriter and CEO of Songwriters of North America/The SONA Foundation
- Paulette Long OBE – Consultant, Artist Manager and Chair, Music Publishers Association
- Andrea Czapary Martin – CEO of PRS for Music
- Elizabeth Matthews – CEO, ASCAP
- Katherine Melling – Music Manager
- Erin McAnally – Executive Director, Songwriters of North America
- Chris Meehan – CEO of Sentric
- Roberto Neri – CEO of The Ivors Academy
- Ed Newton-Rex – CEO, Fairly Trained
- Dr Julia Niebler-Kaiser – Deputy General Counsel, GEMA
- Anne Nikitin – Two-time Ivor Novello and Emmy-nominated composer
- Pixie Pickering – Vice President, Creative Sync, Sony Music Publishing
- Orphy Robinson MBE, Composer and Board Director at The Ivors Academy
- Stevie Spring CBE – Chairman of the mental health charity Mind
- Rebecca Lucy Taylor AKA Self Esteem – Musician, songwriter and actress
- Sarah Williams – CEO, IMPEL
- Ayanna Witter-Johnson – Ivors Academy Board Director, Singer-songwriter, Composer, Cellist, Pianist and Radio Presenter
Programme details
Pre-Summit MLC Session
Kickstart your summit experience with our pre-summit session hosted by MLC
09:15-09:35 Maximise Your Songwriting Revenue. Your music, your money, collect your $$$
If your songs are streamed on US digital platforms you are entitled to royalties. Since 2021, the MLC has distributed almost $3 billion in royalties to songwriters, publishers & CMOs all over the world. The MLC is free to join and distributes 100% of the royalties earned. Indi Chawla will explain how songwriters can collect royalties from the biggest streaming market in the world and how the organisation is empowering creators and leading the way in transparency.
Main summit programme
Learn more about the programme below, and stay tuned for exclusive fireside chat announcements, plus upcoming Composer & Songwriter in Conversation sessions.
09:45 Building and managing your business as a songwriter or composer
Do you know how much you should be getting paid from your music?
Songwriters and composers are the backbone of the industry but are rarely paid equitably or accurately. The Ivors Academy is empowering songwriters and composers to build and grow their businesses through our new toolkit and this Summit. What are your key revenue streams? Outside The Ivors Academy, what platforms and partners can help you better manage your rights and revenues? How will they help you earn as much as possible and give you the best chance of identifying what’s missing? How do you make sure that you earn whenever your music is played, performed, synced, broadcast and streamed?
Our Summit starts that process by exploring and explaining the creative and commercial power behind songwriting and composing – the business skills that turn ideas into sustainable careers.
10:00 Andrea Czapary Martin (PRS for Music) in conversation
Collective Management Organisations (CMOs) are crucial business partners for music creators, helping to license and collect the music they write and compose.
PRS CEO Andrea Czapary Martin discusses the role of the modern CMO in a truly global marketplace where licensing rights involves processing masses of data.
How has PRS evolved to meet the challenges of the modern music business? And how can music creators inform and benefit from the innovations that PRS is leading?
10:20 Collective licensing in the USA
Collective licensing in the biggest music rights market in the world works differently to the UK and the rest of Europe. In the US, multiple competing performing rights organisations exist, music creators and publishers are highly regulated and subject to compulsory licences, and American copyright law presents its own unique challenges.
This session unpacks how the US system works and explains what it means for managing your rights in the States, and how you can build direct relationships with key organisations in the American market.
10:45 The business of lyrics
The Ivors Academy exists to protect and champion your rights and the value of your intellectual property. We’re putting the business of lyrics in the spotlight. Lyrics play an important role in music discovery and provide additional, and often un-monetised, revenue opportunities.
We will explore how digital platforms interact with, utilise and license lyrics, what songwriters and composers can do to ensure their lyrics are properly managed, protected and monetised, and how we shape a better licensing model for the future.
11:10 Stevie Spring in conversation
The Ivors Academy CEO Roberto Neri talks to Stevie Spring CBE about her career in media and business, and her current roles chairing the board of PRS for Music and the mental health charity MIND.
Having started her career in law, Stevie has been CEO of two international media companies, has served on public, private, private equity, membership and charity boards, is an investor advisor to two tech companies, and recently finished her extended term as Chairman of the British Council.
11:50 Credits Due and metadata
Do you know if your contributions are accurately reflected within the value chain? Are you being credited externally for your work? If you have missing or incorrect metadata attached to your work, you could be losing out on significant income.
That’s why The Ivors Academy has been leading the charge with its Credits Due campaign – advocating for higher global metadata standards and stronger systems, so you’re paid what you’re due.
Credits Due exists to solve two fundamental problems in the industry: to ensure complete and accurate song metadata is attached to all recordings at the point of creation, and to raise the profile of songwriters by ensuring they are publicly credited for their work.
In this session we will explain what data matters and your role – and that of your business partners – in getting that data into the system, ensuring you receive the royalties and credit you deserve.
12:15 The business of classical
We understand that the traditional income models that support songwriters are different to those which support our classical composers. The Ivors Academy is campaigning to create a secure future for classical composers – one where funding is sustainable, education is properly supported, and new music is commissioned on fair and transparent terms.
Commissioning sits at the heart of a thriving contemporary classical sector. We’ll consider the role that publishers and agents play in supporting and working effectively with composers, and explore trends and new opportunities in the printed music market.
How do you extract the most value from your commissions? What should your publisher be doing to help support this? And how can they better champion your work and negotiate fairer, more transparent commissioning deals?
12:35 David Israelite in conversation
Songwriter and artist advocate, and Co-Executive Director of Songwriters of North America, Erin McAnally talks to David Israelite, President and CEO of the National Music Publishers’ Association in the US.
His leadership of NMPA over the last two decades has resulted in numerous successes on behalf of US music publishers, including the largest Copyright Royalty Board rate increase in history, groundbreaking industry collaboration on royalty rate agreements, landmark settlements and model licences with streaming platforms, and crucial work to modernise US copyright laws culminating in the Music Modernization Act.
He continues to advocate for publishers, and fight to protect the value of music rights, in an ever-changing marketplace.
13:45 Post Lunch Recap
A rapid-fire recap of the conversations so far and key insights from the Summit with practical tips to help you manage your rights and revenues more effectively. We’ll also look at how to choose the right platforms and partners to support your work as a songwriter or composer.
13:55 Publisher perspectives: effective rights administration
As music is played, performed, synced, broadcast, and streamed across the globe, tracking its use across more than 20,000 different sources – and ensuring every songwriter and composer is properly paid – is an enormous administrative task. In this session, we’ll explore how publishers or rights administrators manage this process, and how new technologies are both creating new complexities and innovative solutions.
We’ll look at how songwriters and composers, including self-published writers, can take steps to ensure their rights are effectively administered.
14:15 David Arnold x Anne Nikitin in conversation
In the first of our music creator in conversations, Anne Nikitin will discuss music-making and the business of being a composer with David Arnold.
Best known for his work on blockbuster movies including 'Independence Day', 'Stargate', 'Shaft', 'Narnia' and no less than five James Bond films, David has worked extensively across film, TV and stage. He is also a highly esteemed artist, record producer, songwriter and conductor, having worked with the likes of Queen , The Who, Chrissie Hynde, Iggy Pop, Shirley Manson and Shirley Bassey.
Anne is a composer whose distinctive sound can be heard on TV series like 'Hijack' and 'One Day', as well as in films including 'American Animals' and 'Scoop'. She also recently collaborated with Tom Hanks on 'THE MOONWALKERS', which transformed London's LIGHTROOM into an epic immersive voyage to the moon based on past and future NASA voyages.
14:40 Music and AI
AI is one of the biggest challenges our community has ever faced. While it has potential as a tool to support creativity and improve efficiency in the industry, it must be developed in a way that protects copyright, provides transparency and values human creativity. That’s why The Ivors Academy has been leading the fight against exploitative AI practices that undermine the livelihoods of songwriters and composers.
What responsibilities do AI companies have when using existing music to train their models? What commercial, creative and business efficiency opportunities does AI offer to composers and songwriters?
We’ll hear from those at the heart of the debate around music and AI, reviewing the political dimension, key legal cases, and the campaigns that are seeking to ensure that tech companies work with, rather than against, creators.
15:10 Peter de Monnink in conversation
Charlene Brown, Co-Founder and Managing Director of Howlett Brown, speaks to Peter de Monnink, CEO of ICE, the leading integrated hub for digital licensing, processing, and rights management for creators, publishers, and societies.
Serving over 330,000 rightsholders, ICE has processed trillions of music streams and paid over €5 billion in royalties since 2016. During Peter's three years as CEO, ICE has scaled up in all areas and has achieved the milestone of distributing €1 billion to rightsholders in a consecutive twelve-month period.
Prior to joining ICE, Peter spent over 15 years as CEO at several prominent European media companies, including Talpa Network, Sanoma, and Reed, where he oversaw digital innovation, operational excellence, and strategic growth.
15:30 Publisher perspectives: creative and commercial opportunities
We talk to key global players to look at what additional services music publishers can provide and the further value they can add. We’ll get perspectives from three leading figures from music publishing about the evolving role of the music publisher, challenges and opportunities facing the sector, and what makes a successful, long-term partnership between a publishing company and a songwriter/composer.
16:00 Self Esteem x Guy Garvey in conversation
In the second of our music creator in conversations, Guy Garvey will discuss music-making and the business of being an artist and songwriter with Self Esteem.
Songwriter, musician and actress Self Esteem, aka Rebecca Taylor, recently released her latest album 'A Complicated Woman'. Featuring guest appearances from Nadine Shah, Sue Tompkins, Julie Hesmondalgh and Meatball, the new record is the follow up to 2021's much praised 'Prioritise Pleasure' and also follows a critically acclaimed run as Sally Bowles in Rebecca Frecknall’s production of ‘Cabaret'.
Guy - composer, lyricist, singer, producer and broadcaster - has created ten studio albums with Elbow, winning numerous awards and much critical acclaim along the way. He has also co-written and performed soundtracks for TV and film, collaborated with artists like Massive Attack, Craig Armstrong and Nitin Sawhney, and in 2015 released solo album ‘Courting the Squall’.
16:30 Closing remarks
17:00-19:00 The Ivors Academy summit drinks reception
