APRA and CISAC unite in Sydney to celebrate a century of creators’ rights advocacy, with APRA and CISAC confronting the accelerating impact of Generative AI on the global creative economy.
by Paul Cashmere
One hundred years after their formation on opposite sides of the world, the Australasian Performing Right Association and the International Confederation of Societies of Authors and Composers have come together in Sydney at a pivotal moment for the international copyright community.
The CISAC Board of Directors, representing 228 member societies across 111 countries, has convened in Australia for the first time in a quarter of a century. Hosted by APRA AMCOS, the meeting underscores both a centenary milestone and an urgent policy challenge facing creators worldwide.
Founded in 1926, APRA was established on the principle that composers and songwriters deserve fair remuneration when their work is publicly performed. CISAC was formed in the same year in Paris, driven by a shared belief that creative expression carries economic value that must be recognised in law. Across the century, both organisations have expanded in scope and influence, building a global rights infrastructure that now spans music, audiovisual works, drama, literature and visual arts.
Today, CISAC’s member societies collectively represent more than five million creators and distribute over USD $15 billion in royalties annually. Those members include ASCAP in the United States, GEMA in Germany, JASRAC in Japan, PRS for Music in the United Kingdom, SACEM in France, SAMRO in South Africa, SOCAN in Canada and UBC in Brazil. Visual artists and screen creators are represented through affiliated bodies such as DACS and SACD.
APRA AMCOS CEO Dean Ormston, who has served as CISAC Chair since 2025, said the centenary gathering is both symbolic and strategic. “APRA and CISAC have been advocating for creators’ rights for 100 years, and to be able to meet on home soil to both celebrate our history and look forward to our next 100 years together is a great honour,” he said. “We stand strong in our collaboration with CMOs from around the world, united under the CISAC banner, as we advocate for the value of human creativity in the face of the AI revolution.”
That “AI revolution” has rapidly become the defining issue for copyright administrators. Generative AI systems trained on vast data sets of existing music, writing and imagery have triggered global debate over consent, remuneration and transparency. APRA AMCOS recently released its AI And Music report, designed to frame Australia’s national conversation around how emerging technologies intersect with creators’ rights and income streams.
A CISAC commissioned global study projects that the Generative AI music market could reach €16 billion annually by 2028. Without effective licensing frameworks and regulatory safeguards, up to 24 percent of music creators’ revenues could be exposed to risk.
Australia has already taken a significant position in this debate. APRA AMCOS was central to a coalition that saw the federal government reject the introduction of a broad Text And Data Mining exception into domestic copyright law, a move widely interpreted as closing off large scale, unlicensed scraping of creative works for AI training purposes.
CISAC Director General Gadi Oron said the scale of technological change demands coordinated global leadership. “The scale of transformation we are witnessing today calls for the same collective resolve that defined our founding a century ago,” he said.
“Our responsibility, now as always, is to ensure that innovation strengthens the creative economy rather than diminishes it, and that creators receive a fair share of the value their works generate.”
Ormston added that the debate extends beyond economics. “Creators are the cultural, social and economic fabric of every nation. Protecting them, and in particular creators of Indigenous Cultural and Intellectual Property, is not optional. It is exactly what APRA, CISAC and our global network of societies exist to do and have existed to do for one hundred years.”
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