This month marks the 100th anniversary of the moment in 1926 when six music publishers founded the Australasian Performing Right Association (APRA).<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Cue a year-long program of celebrations for the centenary of the organisation that, via a 1997 merger, became APRA Amcos. They are kicking off with an \u2018APRA: A Century of Song<\/a>\u2018 website offering a timeline of its history.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Also in store: the biggest APRA Music Awards yet in April, as well as the Silver Scroll Awards \/ Kaitito Kaiaka in New Zealand in October; a beefed-up SongHubs collaborative songwriting program in April and September in the respective countries; an anthology book about Australian songwriting; and a new hall-of-fame event in November.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n \u201cThis centenary isn\u2019t just about looking back \u2013 it\u2019s about celebrating the enduring value of songwriting to our culture, identity and our two nations,\u201d said CEO Dean Ormston.<\/p>\n\n\n\n While this is all celebratory, the anniversary also comes at a sensitive moment for musicians in Australia and New Zealand.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In October last year, an APRA Amcos report warned that local music\u2019s share of streams in Australasia had\u00a0fallen noticeably over the last five years<\/a>. A follow-up report in November from think-tank The Australia Institute\u00a0backed those findings<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n