The Calm After The Storm

Keith Donald, the new chair of the Irish Music Rights Organisation (IMRO), likes to look on the bright side of things. This is particularly true in regards to the organisation of which he has just assumed leadership. He says that, following a period of turmoil, involving serious disagreements and ultimately resignations among board members, IMRO is now in a stronger position than ever.

“IMRO has been through a rocky patch,” he says. “I don’t have to rehearse with you what that was – it’s been all over the newspapers, so it’s in the public domain. We’re emerging now from the choppy waters and my goal is to be able to look at the bigger picture, rather than the minutiae of what we do. It means increasing the amount of money we collect and keeping our overheads down, so that we can distribute more to writers.”
There was also the small matter of a legal dispute with POD Concerts, in which John Reynolds held out – especially where Electric Picnic is concerned – in trenchant terms against the scale of IMRO charges.
The dispute landed in the High Court and is now under arbitration. As a result, Donald cannot comment – though clearly it is a case with significant potential ramifications, in terms of the balance between rights holders and festival promoters in the future.

NOBODY IS COLLECTING
As its core activity, IMRO collects royalties on behalf of publishers, songwriters and composers. It was set up in 1994 as a breakaway collection society from the UK-based PRS, which up to that point, collected and distributed for Ireland. Among its objectives was to enhance the position of Irish publishers, songwriters and composers.
The organisation now has a turnover of €38 million, most of which goes to songwriters and publishers. However, according to Donald, 88% of the monies collected leave the country, with the remainder being distributed among home-grown artists.
Surely this represents a massive inequity in the system? “Well, it mainly reflects what’s being played on the radio,” he says. “Unfortunately, radio here play largely an Anglo-American repertoire – therefore the money goes to the writers of those songs – and they are living in America and the UK.
“We collect for Paul McCartney and Bruce Springsteen, just the same as the American societies collect for Christy Moore and Eleanor McEvoy,” he continues. “One of our difficulties with the American collection societies is that under legislation brought in years ago, money from the corner store – the mom and pop store – isn’t collected. Unfortunately these stores kept getting bigger until they became supermarkets. So if you go into a Wal-Mart in the States and you hear music – nobody is collecting. Similarly they don’t collect from PBS television or from cinemas or pubs.”
This state of affairs is clearly unsatisfactory – is there anything that can be done to make the system more equitable between the US and Ireland, especially as Irish music has such a strong following in the States?
“We have pushed over the years to try and get it fixed and we will do so again. It might end up being a World Trade Organisation thing. To me it’s mind-boggling – and annoying. Because it’s very simple – if you produce something that is a work of art you should get paid for it. For instance, if you take the 1,200 Irish bars that are in the New York area, plus the ones in Boston and Philadelphia and all those other centres of ex-pat and American Irish population – it’s largely Irish repertoire that’s been played, yet the people who created that repertoire are not benefiting. That’s a problem.”

FORENSIC AUDIT
While the US situation is currently largely out of the hands of IMRO, the domestic picture, particularly in relation to radio-play is open to improvement, according to Donald. “You’d be mad to be happy with things the way they are. We’ve got to keep pushing for more Irish music on Irish radio. But IMRO can’t do that pushing, because we have to represent everyone’s repertoire from around the world. But it would be great to see other organisations and people pushing it.”
Meanwhile, IMRO continues to be involved in supporting the local song-writing community by organising seminars, workshops and tours, as Donald explains.
“The core business is collection and distribution – but if you want to encourage the songwriters of the future, you encourage them at the baby stage. You could call it a research and development operation. If we were any other company it would be R&D. We sponsor and organise a lot of things. There’s the IMRO showcase tour for example, as well as songwriting seminars and stuff like film music-writing workshops.”
He also points to other improvements in the way IMRO operates.
“We’ve done a lot of things to tighten up things,” he says. “For example, we saw the need for a system of committees, which involves the board in a lot more of the detail of what we do. So we have a PR committee, an audit and finance committee, a distribution committee, a remuneration committee. These involve board members sitting on various committees, going into things in depth, and bringing it back to the board for discussion. We also have an internal audit system – we thought it was a good idea to be able to say ‘We would like you to do a forensic audit on this section of the business and report back to us’. It’s a way of looking at things and making sure they’re working correctly.”
Finally as a working musician (he still performs regularly with Moving Hearts as well as his own solo projects), Donald says he feels a strong bond with Irish musicians
“It’s family to me,” he says. “I have my own family – but the music community in Ireland is my extended family. I go to a gig down the country somewhere and when I meet up with them it’s like meeting my cousins. I have a personal duty of care and desire to do what’s right for them.”
It’s not a bad starting point, in his new role, that’s for sure...