April 2, 2025 – State of Music Publishing 2025 with David Israelite

AIMP LA’s annual marquis event at Lawry’s the Prime Rib with special guest, NMPA President and CEO David Israelite, as he discusses current music publishing matters.

Download David Israelite’s Presentation Slides here.

David M. Israelite is President and CEO of the National Music Publishers’ Association (NMPA), a position he has held since February 2005. Israelite is responsible for overseeing all aspects of NMPA’s operations, from legal strategy and implementation to government affairs and advocacy. His leadership has produced revolutionary successes on behalf of publishers including the largest CRB rate increase in history, groundbreaking industry collaboration in royalty rate agreements, landmark settlements and model licenses with streaming platforms, and ultimately raising the profile of the publishing community. Additionally, Israelite was instrumental in guiding the effort to modernize copyright laws culminating in the Music Modernization Act (MMA) and the subsequent creation of the Mechanical Licensing Collective (MLC). He has been named to Billboard’s Power 100 multiple times and serves on the boards of the Songwriters Hall of Fame, the Country Music Association and Special Olympics DC. He also serves as the President of the NMPA S.O.N.G.S. Foundation (Supporting Our Next Generation of Songwriters) which supports songwriters through funding scholarships and direct services, among other assistance. Prior to leading NMPA, Israelite held senior positions in various capacities for the U.S. government including at the Department of Justice where he served as Deputy Chief of Staff and Counselor to the Attorney General of the United States and was appointed Chairman of the Department’s Task Force on Intellectual Property. He also worked in the U.S. Senate where he was Administrative Assistant (Chief of Staff) for Missouri Senator Kit Bond. Previously, Israelite also practiced law in the Commercial Litigation Department at the firm of Bryan Cave, LLP in Kansas City, Missouri. Israelite earned his Juris Doctor from the University of Missouri and his undergraduate degree from William Jewell College.

An exciting and insightful webinar as we dive into the world of punk rock and its impact on music publishing. This session explored how iconic songwriters from the punk rock world discovered music publishing and some of the lessons they learned along the way. Featuring Jennifer Finch (Visual and Music Artist/L7), Brett Gurewitz (Mothership Music Publishing, Bad Religion), and Molly Neuman as moderator (CD Baby, Bratmobile).

With Amelia Binder (NMPA), Morna Willens (NMPA), and moderator Michael Lau (AIMP)

Whether it’s AAA games like the Grammy-winning “Star Wars Jedi: Survivor” or “Grand Theft Auto VI,” the music centric games, “Just Dance” and “Guitar Hero,” or games specifically made for mobile, music plays an important and integral part in the gaming world.
This panel will discuss the many aspects of music in games including pitching songs, the basics of sync licenses, royalty formulas, the creative selection of music in a game, deal structures, the role of music supervisors and music affairs directors, the music team and the composer/conductor/orchestrator experience.
Our fantastic panel includes Gordy Haab, Award-winning Video Game composer of “Star Wars Jedi: Survivor” and “Star Wars Battlefront II;” Alex Hackford, Music Affairs Director, PlayStation Studios; Alan Meyerson, Award-winning Producer & Engineer; Jake Versluis, Position Music Partner – A&R and Gaming; and Moderator, Todd Brabec, Esq., Adjunct Professor USC, former ASCAP EVP, Co-author “Music, Money and Success.”
Join us for an engaging and enlightening discussion about music for video games, back at an AIMP favorite, Lawry’s the Prime Rib in Beverly Hills.

Geared towards developing and emerging songwriters, our webinar will demystify the fundamentals of publishing administration for self-published songwriters.
Join us as our panel of music publishing professionals shares valuable insights and practical advice to help you navigate the business side of your songwriting career. From affiliating with a PRO to understanding song splits, registering your compositions, and pitching your songs for film and TV placements, our panel has you covered. Learn the best publishing practices for releasing your own music and discover essential strategies for collecting and tracking your hard-earned income. There will be an interactive session at the end where you will have the opportunity to join breakout rooms and have your questions answered by experts in specific music publishing areas.
Don’t miss out on this opportunity to empower yourself as both a creator and a publisher!
Speakers
• AIMP/LA Board Members
Todd Brabec, Yvonne Drazan, David Quan, and Michael Todd
Moderator
• Marc Caruso

David M. Israelite is President and CEO of the National Music Publishers’ Association (NMPA), a position he has held since February 2005. Israelite is responsible for overseeing all aspects of NMPA’s operations, from legal strategy and implementation to government affairs and advocacy. His leadership has produced revolutionary successes on behalf of publishers including the largest CRB rate increase in history, groundbreaking industry collaboration in royalty rate agreements, landmark settlements and model licenses with streaming platforms, and ultimately raising the profile of the publishing community. Additionally, Israelite was instrumental in guiding the effort to modernize copyright laws culminating in the Music Modernization Act (MMA) and the subsequent creation of the Mechanical Licensing Collective (MLC). He has been named to Billboard’s Power 100 multiple times and serves on the boards of the Songwriters Hall of Fame, the Country Music Association and Special Olympics DC. He also serves as the President of the NMPA S.O.N.G.S. Foundation (Supporting Our Next Generation of Songwriters) which supports songwriters through funding scholarships and direct services, among other assistance. Prior to leading NMPA, Israelite held senior positions in various capacities for the U.S. government including at the Department of Justice where he served as Deputy Chief of Staff and Counselor to the Attorney General of the United States and was appointed Chairman of the Department’s Task Force on Intellectual Property. He also worked in the U.S. Senate where he was Administrative Assistant (Chief of Staff) for Missouri Senator Kit Bond. Previously, Israelite also practiced law in the Commercial Litigation Department at the firm of Bryan Cave, LLP in Kansas City, Missouri. Israelite earned his Juris Doctor from the University of Missouri and his undergraduate degree from William Jewell College.

Do you ever wonder what happens after a catalog is sold? Do the transferred assets and related documents magically appear where they need to? Of course not (although we wish they would)! Come join us as we discuss the ins and outs of what exactly happens once the dust settles after a catalog acquisition. Our esteemed panelists will share their insights on the process and what the ideal post-catalog acquisition world would look like.
Speakers
• Joyce Dollinger
• Brook Primont
• Melanie Santa Rosa
Moderator
• Amber Charania

With the buying, selling and assigning of copyright interests and income streams continuing to accelerate with many new players in the marketplace joining the already “established” players and with the myriad types of different deals and arrangements all of a sudden becoming commonplace, the question remains in all of these deals-what is actually being sold, shared or assigned and how is the final price of any acquisition arrived at.
Any acquisition, whether it’s a 100% or partial sale of current assets or one that combines futures as well or involves only an income interest rather than a copyright transfer, the starting point of every deal is the Due Diligence inquiry, both financial and legal. Due Diligence is the term that describes the procedures and processes that the potential buyer utilizes in its investigation of the assets being acquired.
This panel will discuss the primary aspects of legal and financial due diligence relative to any acquisition including “sustainable income”, past and current royalties and statement analysis, chart activity and non-re-occurring one time income events, CMO payment formulas, chain of title and copyright status inquiries, songwriter agreements, and foreign subpublishing and administration commitments among other areas.
Speakers
• Todd Brabec
Todd Brabec, former ASCAP Executive Vice President and Worldwide Director of Membership, is an Entertainment Law attorney, a Deems Taylor Award winning co-author of the best selling music business book ” Music, Money and Success: the Insid-er’s Guide to Making Money in the Music Business” (8th edition, Schirmer Books/ Wise Music) as well as the “Music Publishing Law” chapter in the 2 volume legal treatise “ The Essential Guide to Entertainment Law-Dealmaking” (Juris Publications/2021)), an Adjunct Professor at USC where he teaches the course on Music Publishing, Music Licensing and Film, Television and Video Game scoring and song contracts and a former Governing Committee member as well as Music and Budget Chair of the Amer-ican Bar Association Forum on the Entertainment and Sports Industries. In addition to the Deems Taylor Award for Excellence in Music Journalism, he is the recipient of the 2005 Educational Leadership Award from the Music & Entertainment Industry Educators Association (MEIEA), the 2015 Texas Star Award from the State Bar of Texas for Outstanding Achievement and Contribution to the field of Entertainment Law and the 2019 California Copyright Conference Apollo Award for Excellence in Leadership and Achievement in the Music Industry and is a graduate of the New York University School of Law. During his 37 year career at ASCAP, he was responsible for all Membership opera-tions, personnel and offices as well as signing many of ASCAP’s most successful songwriters, writer/artists and film, television and video game composers in addition to significantly changing many of ASCAP’s payment, distribution and survey rules includ-ing those that significantly increased the royalties for successful radio songs and film and television theme songs and scores. In addition, he was involved in numerous fed-eral “Rate Court” proceedings as well as Consent Decree reviews. He lectures extensively throughout the world at conferences, universities, bar asso-ciations, law firms and management companies and has appeared on hundreds of panels including PLI, the American Bar Association, the Game Developers Confer-ence, DIMA, the International Association of Entertainment Lawyers (IAEL), Volunteer Lawyers for the Arts, NATPE, Midem, Canadian Music Week, the Association of Inde-pendent Music Publishers (AIMP) as well as many others. He has hundreds of pub-lished articles on all aspects of the business and law of Music and Entertainment. His Mitchell Hamline law review article, “The Performance Right: a World in Transition”, was selected by West/Thomson/Reuters as one of the best Entertainment Law Review articles of 2016. Prior to his Entertainment Law practice, he was a legal services attorney in Chicago for Community Legal Counsel (Office of Economic Opportunity) as well as a recording artist as The Reunion. Website: musicandmoney.com
• Jeff Brabec
Jeff Brabec is Senior Vice President of Business & Legal Affairs for BMG Rights Management (US) LLC (BMG). Brabec specializes in evaluating, analyzing, projecting income and negotiating music publishing catalogue acquisitions. A graduate of New York University School of Law, he has also been a government legal services attorney. Brabec is the co-author with his twin brother Todd of the best-selling book “MUSIC, MONEY, AND SUCCESS: The Insider’s Guide To Making Money In The Music Business” (8th Edition / Schirmer Trade Books/Music Sales). Variety Magazine selected the 8th Edition as one of The Best Music Books of 2019. He is also co-author of the Music Publishing chapter of the 2018 Juris Publications multiple volume treatise “The Essential Guide To Entertainment Law.” He has been awarded the Deems Taylor Award for Excellence in Music Journalism, The Texas Star Award by the Entertainment & Sports Law Section of the State Bar of Texas for Outstanding Contribution and Achievement in the Field of Entertainment Law and the 2019 California Copyright Conference Apollo Award Honoring Leadership and Achievement In the Music Industry. Brabec is an adjunct professor at USC Thornton School of Music/Business Division where he teaches music publishing and licensing. He Is also on the board of the Mechanical Licensing Collective (MLC) which was established by the Music Modernization Act and on the board of the Canadian Publishers Committee (CPC) of SXWorks, LLC .
• Frank Handy
Frank Handy has worked in music publishing for over 18 years. Currently VP, Head of Operations and Administration, Handy oversees operations, copyright, royalties, licensing, distribution teams, finds new revenue streams, and looks after Position Music’s international interests. Handy started working at Position Music in early 2020 and made an immediate impact, giving Position Music the confidence and ability to explore and properly manage larger administrative deals with established artists and bands around the world. Prior to Position Music, Handy was Vice President of Licensing and Copyright at SONGS Music Publishing where he oversaw SONG’s copyright functions, synchronization licensing, mechanical licensing, contract review, sample clearances and YouTube content management. He was also Head of Creator & Publisher Relations at AllTrack Performing Rights and spent five years at Bug Music as Senior Copyright Administrator where he oversaw catalogs for the Johnny Cash estate, Del Shannon estate, Iggy Pop, Wilco, and others. Frank is currently the Vice President for the Los Angeles chapter of the Association of Independent Publishers (AIMP) and has spoken on panels at The Musician’s Institute, The AIMP, and The House of Blues Foundation. A lifelong musician, Handy played guitar in bands for over twenty years and graduated from the Musician’s Institute of Technology guitar program with awards. He currently lives in Los Angeles with his family and enjoys playing golf.

Join us for an inspiring extension of the AIMP’s “A View From The Top” panel series!
Are you just starting out in the music business? Or want the perspective of what the entertainment industry environment looks like today from a fresh angle? How have things changed? What’s new that you’re not utilizing? On this first edition of “A View From The Start,” we will have the opportunity to hear directly from four future music industry executives who are at the very start of their careers.
The first half of this discussion, which will be moderated by peermusic ’s Yvonne Drazan , will give a snapshot of the panelists’ educational paths, their current positions, career goals and what motivated them to want to work in Music. The second part of this webinar will be a “pick your brain” session where we will ask questions like “How are you discovering music? What platforms are you using? What genres/artists should we be looking out for? Where do you see the industry heading?” And more!
Panelists
David Carrasco
Latin A&R Coordinator, peermusic
Zack Richmond
Coordinator, Music Publishing, Universal Pictures Film Music Department
Tyler Garber
Associate Attorney,King, Holmes, Paterno & Soriano, LLP
Angela McPhee
Artist Management Coordinator, Friends At Work
Moderator
Yvonne Drazan
Vice President Latin Division, West Coast peermusic

With Frank Handy (Position Music), Katie Fagan (Prescription Songs), Michael Prommer (Defend Music), Jennifer Mitchell (Red Brick Songs), and moderator Marc Caruso (Angry Mob Music / AIMP)

With Annette Barrett (Reservoir / IMPF), Pierre Mossiat (Strictly Confidential), Sarah Williams (IMPEL), and moderator Teri Nelson Carpenter (Reel Muzik Werks)

With Richard Burgess (A2IM), Hellienne Lindvall (ESCA), Abby North (North Music Group), and moderator Kevin Casini (RIME)