2025 Recorded Music NZ Annual wrap-upDecember 15, 2025

It's time for our end of year wrap-up! But first, some important dates in December and January:

• Nominations for AMA 2026 close 5pm this Wednesday 17 December. Eligible artists and their teams are invited to submit their entries here
• Recording rights holders: Once you have received your log-in activation email, 2025 repertoire registrations must be completed by 30 January 2026. Find more information here
• 20 January 2026: Register Repertoire workshop – following the launch of our new rights holder portal, the Recorded Music team will be running a workshop for rights holders to learn more about how to use the portal and registering repertoire. If you would like to attend please indicate your interest here
• The Recorded Music office closes for the holiday period this Friday 19 December. The Member Services team will be back online from Monday 12 January

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2025 has been a huge year for Recorded Music as we worked through our system upgrade project, supported by PPL, our equivalent collection body in the UK. We have just announced the first release of our new rights holder portal, myRecordedMusic, which serves as the gateway to the new data and distribution system. The portal will give rights holders greater visibility and control, and is a step change towards greater efficiency and accuracy behind the scenes.

Watch this space for further updates on distribution including the portal for artists. Looking forward to 2026 we’ll also be updating our Distribution Policy and Master Rights Agreements, to ensure that our policies and operations align with our new system.

Alongside the new portal we unveiled a new Recorded Music website that integrates with the portal and makes it easy for rights holders and artists to access the information they need.

2025 was also a big year for our mahi to promote and celebrate Aotearoa recording artists. The 60th anniversary Aotearoa Music Awards in May highlighted the breadth and depth of musical talent from New Zealand and, along with the 50th anniversary of the Official Music Charts in Aotearoa, celebrated some of our most iconic artists and music.

We also continued to advocate to government for recording artists and rights holders, with a focus on AI and copyright, and will be ramping up our advocacy ahead of the 2026 general election.

We have enjoyed welcoming several new Board members through 2025, and working with our first ever Māori Board Advisor Juliet Tainui-Hernandez. Following an intensive year of learning and building the cultural capability of the Board and staff, 2026 will see the organisation commit to a Rautaki Māori across all of our activities to tautoko and support Māori artists and music.

A big thank you to everyone who completed our member survey – it’s so helpful to hear from rights holders, artists and the music community as we make our future plans, and we’ll be sharing some of the results in the new year.

As we approach end of the year, keep an eye on the Charts socials for the 2025 End of Year Charts ahead of the Kirihimete break.

Wishing everyone a restful break (or a successful summer tour) and we look forward to working with you in 2026.