APRA AMCOS CEO to step down

Brett Cottle, the long-serving CEO of APRA AMCOS, has announced his intention to step down after 27 years at the Australasian collection society.

Cottle, who joined APRA as its first in-house counsel in the late 1970s, oversaw the merger of APRA (Australasian Performing Right Association) and AMCOS (Australasian Mechanical Copyright Owners’ Society) in 1997 and has since increased royalty collections and distributions by seven-fold. (More than A$70 million, or US$52.2m, was paid out in public performance royalties in 2015–2016.)

In a letter to staff, Cottle (pictured) said 2017 financial results will again be at a record level.

Cottle will stay in the role for the next 12 months, after which, says APRA chair Jenny Morris, he is “keen to pursue other priorities in life”.

“The operational merger of APRA and AMCOS is today taken for granted, but when it was effected in 1997 Brett’s vision and leadership were critical to its success”

“The operational merger of APRA and AMCOS is today taken for granted, but when it was effected in 1997 Brett’s vision and leadership were critical to its success,” says AMCOS chair Ian James. “The positive and productive spirit in which the two boards have co-operated seamlessly ever since is testament to the culture created and fostered by Brett.

“Internationally the organisation commands enormous respect, reflected in the fact that Brett is the only Australian to have been elected chair of the International Confederation of Authors’ Societies, a role in which he served for two consecutive terms.”

Recruitment firm Odgers Berndtson will lead the search for a new CEO.

Get more stories like this in your inbox by signing up for IQ Index, IQ’s free email digest of essential live music industry news.