The Power 50: Dean Ormston

Dean Ormston spent ten years in the role of Board Director of Screenrights, in addition to his work with APRA AMCOS since 1995. In 2014, Ormston was made Head of Member Services and was promoted to CEO in 2018. Ormston has remained the Vice Chair of the Australian Copyright Council since 2009. 

2019 was a game-changing year for Dean Ormston and APRA AMCOS with the music rights management organisation joining forces with PPCA to launch OneMusic - a service that aims to simplify the licencing process for businesses - in July.

APRA AMCOS’ signature SongMakers and SongHubs programs continued for another year, seeing a total of 70 events now completed both locally and internationally. 2019 also saw the launch of the organisation’s Global APRA Music Awards celebrating Australian and New Zealand artists who’ve seen success in overseas markets. The inaugural events would follow in early 2020, taking place in LA, Nashville and London, with artists like Jordan Rakei and CLOVES picking up awards, while Nick Cave and Warren Ellis were presented with The Distinguished Services Award London.

"For decades, our members have been heading to London and all over the UK as their first overseas destination when taking the big leap into an international career, and that’s expanded to Berlin, Amsterdam and all of Europe as Australian and New Zealand songwriters achieve unprecedented global success," said Ormston at the time. "This event is about celebrating our members living and working in the UK and Europe, and also about going back home and sharing the stories of all your achievements."

Overall the organisation saw an increase in group revenue to a total of $471m, up from $420m the previous financial year. 

"I think I’d have to say OneMusic Australia. Providing a simpler licensing solution has been talked about for 20+ years. It was an enormous and complicated project, and involved the undivided attention and commitment of the entire organisation to launch, as planned, on 1 July 2019. It's been wonderful to have 25 PPCA staff join our ranks in delivering a joint licensing initiative between APRA AMCOS and PPCA. It's effectively a one-stop-shop that simplifies what has long been a complicated and administratively burdensome process for businesses that use music. The take up by businesses, both small and large, has exceeded forecasts."