APRA AMCOS Songhubs Sphere in New Zealand: A Recap!

In honor and celebration of New Zealand’s 125th suffrage anniversary, APRA AMCOS (Australasian Performing Right Association and Australasian Mechanical Copyright Owners Society) held their second collaborative songwriting program of 2018 in Auckland, New Zealand called SongHubs Sphere.

APRA AMCOS is a music rights management organization with more than 90,000 members. This group licenses organizations to play, perform, copy, and or record their members’ music.

Image Source: Amanda Ratcliffe

New Zealand was the first country in the world to give women the right to vote. The late 19th century marked a period of time where women in New Zealand were ferociously organizing around women’s rights, and in particular, women’s suffrage. In 1893, after two decades of organizing and collective political mobilization, the Women’s Suffrage Petition was signed into law.

125 years later, and despite being a trailblazer for women’s rights, New Zealand still struggles with pervasive gender inequalities. But APRA AMCOS is here to do something about it.

According to APRA AMCOS’ site, only 21.9% of their songwriters and composers identify as female; less than 4% of APRA AMCO’s producers and sound engineers identify as female; less than 10% of acts programmed for New Zealand music festivals identify as female.

Image Source: Amanda Ratcliffe

The SongHubs Sphere Initiative was created and envisioned, in part, to work towards dismantling this gender inequality that exists within the music industry. By bringing talented women creatives together (producers, engineers, performers, songwriters, etc), SongHubs Sphere gave women a platform to collaboratively create music together while leveling the playing field.

From August 6th – August 11th, SongHubs Sphere’s participants and international guests gathered at Roundhead Studio in Auckland, New Zealand to work on a different track each day.

The international guests included:
Wendy Wang (producer, co-writer, multi-instrumentalist)
Susan Rogers (Prince’s audio engineer)
Ebonie Smith (producer, engineer, and founder of Gender Amplified)
Laura Bettinson/FEMME (producer, co-writer, artist)
Chelsea Jade (aritst, co-writer)

Image Source: Amanda Ratcliffe

While the women spent almost every waking hour in the studio creating, they also participated in roundtable discussions about what it means to be a woman working in music, the psychology of music, and the power of storytelling for societal change.

If you want to learn more about the SongHubs Sphere program, you can find more information on their website.