Dear Drum,
Some points about APRA, the collection agency for Australia and New Zealand. Could you please publish this as a letter? APRA is a non-profit organization. Well over 75 percent of its members are independent artists, this means that they don't have their own publishing company nor are they signed with any other publishing company. When you join APRA you grant APRA exclusive rights to your material. When it comes to voting for the board, the way that APRA works is that for every 500 dollars that an artist or publisher collects, the artist or publisher is given an extra vote (see 41 a and b in the PDF link below). One-half of the board is made up of publishers and one-half of artists. APRA does not have one independent artist on the board. The organization has had basically the same system in place since 1926, but in 1926 the internet did not exist and it was not possible for people to publish music without a publisher; it is even possible that at that time most of APRA's artist members were signed with publishers. The Association's constitution can be changed by the membership in a vote on a special resolution if it is passed by 75% of the voting members. If APRA had a one-member one-vote system in place, independent artists would be better represented.
http://www.apra.com.au/corporate/downloads/APRA_Constitution_06.pdf

Published as a letter mid may 2007  by drum media, thanks for giving some air to the issue.

OptAPRA.net 

Drum Media