John Phelan is Director General of ICMP, the global trade body for the music publishing industry.

ICMP membership spans the Majors, several thousand Indies & 77 national trade associations across 6 continents. ICMP defends the rights behind approximately 90% of the world’s commercially released music – today more than 170 million tracks, of more than 5,000 genres.

The music publishing industry is the nexus between music making and the market – investing billions annually in songwriters, composers and music creation, then licensing the world’s music to a global audience via all formats, including streamed audio and video, live performance, TV, film, radio, gaming, physical sales and more.

John’s background is steeped in music having worked for many years as a professional performer. He studied law, then orchestral conducting at the St. Petersburg Conservatoire. John has lectured at Lausanne University and The Paris School of Business Management. He sits on a number of international boards and in 2023 was selected for Billboard magazine’s ‘International Power Players list’, and re-listed in 2024. In July 2024 The US Production Music Association assigned him their Ambassador Award for his work to defend copyright, creators’ rights and the music sector.