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Personal profile

Nick Matzukis is a music industry expert, author, lecturer, consultant and Advocate of the High Court. He has written South Africa's premier book on Music Law, Contracts and Business. Although Nick knows the institutional, legal and business aspects of the music industry intimately, it is important to note that he also brings with him a musician’s perspective. This is because he has also been a very well-known figure in the South African music scene, having played for many high-profile bands, and having been involved in various music projects over the years. He is a founding director of Academy of Sound Engineering, South Africa’s top music production college, and also of AVL Productions, a premier entertainment production company and supplier of music industry technologies. Having started his education career as a lecturer/senior lecturer at the University of the Witwatersrand’s Law School, Nick won various awards including the Convocation Distinguished Teacher’s Award, following on from his numerous Top Student awards. Nick proceeded to open a respected college group in 1995, which included a Contemporary Music School and a Sound Engineering School, the first of their kind in South Africa, and was then made CEO of the country’s largest private education group in 2001. Nick now consults to the music industry at large (including entertainment attorneys), presents Music Business and Music Law lectures at the Academy of Sound Engineering and gives high-profile music business seminars to professionals. He has been requested to assist in the re-drafting of the Collecting Society Regulations for Performers’ Needletime Royalties and possible amendments to the Performers’ Protection and Copyright Acts, and has provided pivotal advice regarding the restructuring of South Africa’s music royalty collection system. Importantly, Nick was also commissioned to provide expert legal advice on the settlement of the current Needletime Royalties impasse and pending litigation. His list of clients and referrers includes attorneys, major royalty collection societies, publishers, labels, recording artists, industry associations, aggregators, music retailers and the Department of Trade and Industry itself (in the form of CIPC’s Copyright Department.) Nick graduated cum laude from Wits Law School in 1984, was awarded the top lecturer prize in 1987, and is the only person ever to have been awarded the APPEDT Lifetime Achievement Award for Contribution to Education. Nick has on several occasions been invited to give seminars at SAMRO and other locations for organizations like the Composers’ Association of South Africa, SAMRO itself, and other key industry players. He was a keynote speaker at Moshito 2010 and 2011, the Nelson Mandela Bay International Music Conference, Talking Heads, Born to be Famous (Artist Management) and twice at Music Exchange, the world-beating international music conference held in Cape Town. He was invited to give the keynote speech at the Hart van Windhoek Music Workshop in Namibia and IP conferences in Zimbabwe and Uganda, and is, in general, a regular presenter on the Southern African music scene. Nick has, in addition to his three books, written various published articles on topics like Needletime, 360 Degree Contracts, Royalty Streams, Music Contracts and other legal and business topics. Nick’s qualifications, experience, career and passions are combined in music, law, business and education. This makes him one of the few people truly qualified to write his ground-breaking book, to mentor young musicians and music industry professionals, and to lecture on Music Law, Contracts and Business, a topic which is so vital to the development of a dynamic and successful music industry in Africa. Importantly, Nick still plays the drums and remains an active member of the South African musical fraternity.

Company profile

Academy of Sound Engineering: www.ase.co.za