Laura Young (S2K Music)
Proposed for appointment by: BMG Rights Management (UK) Limited, Judge Jules, Kassner Associated Publishers Limited, Mute Song Limited, Notting Hill Music (UK) Limited, Novello and Co Limited, Reservoir Media Management Inc, Sony/ATV Music Publishing (UK) Limited, Truelove Music, Westbury Music Limited
Biography
Bored in Norwich whilst studying for a degree in French and Comparative Literature, a love of Dance music led Laura to the EDM scene, frequenting underground clubs and illegal raves. Then came 1988, the ‘summer of love’ and Laura became involved in running the Hedonism events in a disused printing factory in Hanger Lane.
Her training ground in the Jungle scene and the business of buying and selling white label records was the ‘London run’: Blackmarket, Wired for Sound, Lucky Tunes, Tower Records, Virgin Megastore, representing The Stage One Company, pioneering van sales distributor, which she co-founded in 1992. Having established in house label imprints, music publishing was the next step. Stage 1000 (PRS member since 1995) grew into S2k Music Ltd, principle voting member of PRS.
A boutique Drum and Bass publishing administration company, S2k has a current roster of over 40,000 works owned by over 400 publishers, based worldwide, hooked on the now global D&B sound, whose roots remain firmly in the UK. Laura has gained a wide overview of music business affairs from directorship duties to royalty accounting, legal affairs, copyright and neighbouring rights, offering her clients advice and support in all areas of the music business.
Delivering workshops in ‘Music business skills’ for adults and undergraduates (City Lit, Morley College, University of Hertfordshire amongst others) enabled Laura to deepen her knowledge of the Music business as a whole, and participating in committees: Dance Music Group (PRS), Popular Music Publishers Committee (MPA) has quickened her resolve to campaign for the further democratisation of PRS, and her work here is gaining traction.
Laura is an independent and innovative thinker, wordsmith and communicator. She is excited by the prospect of offering her unique voice: female, indie, with a background in EDM, to the PRS Members Council.
Current and recent directorships: S2K Music Limited.
Manifesto
The elected publisher cohort of the Members Council would really benefit (both in terms of real benefit and optics) from what I could bring as a smaller indie: a voice that represents the views of the smaller publisher members who make up the vast majority in terms of numbers, as their concerns are often different and either not prioritised or addressed at all.
For example, small publishers do not have the resources to use CWR. Bulk ISWC allocation for past and current works, recommended by the UK government’s Intellectual Property Office in their recently published new music agreement, cannot be accessed by non-CWR publishers. In addition, the recently launched Nexus facility, which links songs to recordings and ISRC codes, does not include non-CWR catalogue.
It has been two years since PRS invited S2k to assist in the new online works registration tool, yet, following its recent launch, small indie publishers still await a bulk upload system, currently offered by North American PROs and collection hubs.
It has been several years since work began on ICE Cube, a potential cure for tunecode duplication, long wait lists for merges of both active / inactive works, and the wrong version of a work being labelled definitive. PRS has hit record distributions in recent years, yet this essential upgrade remains ‘in progress’.
As an EDM publisher, I am encouraged by the international roll out of club-music recognition via fingerprinting and metadata, facilitated by DJ Monitor / Pioneer, and would like to see PRS follow the lead of other European PROs in actively encouraging the uptake of this by larger licensed club venues.
On AI, I fully support the MPA and ICMP as they work with legislators to ensure that permissions are sought and granted for the large scale use of copyright-protected content for training AI models.
Finally, I believe that the Council would benefit from being more diverse. Differing perspectives, experience and knowledge would nurture creative thinking in strategy and problem solving, and support the Societies’ plans for growth and evolving democracy.
IMPORTANT: Publication of this statement, or any subsequent communication of it, does not constitute endorsement or the promotion of the candidate by the Society, or any member of its management or staff.
The statement has been written by the candidate and has not been altered in any way. The views and/or opinions expressed are the candidate’s own.
