Draft:Ann Munday

Ann Munday's career in music publishing spanned five decades. Munday worked with major recording artists and composers and held management roles with with Hansen Publishing, Music Sales, Elton John's Big Pig Music, and Chrysalis Music UK. In 1978, the founders of Chrysalis Records, Chris Wright and Terry Ellis sent Munday to Los Angeles to establish and manage Chrysalis Music US. In 1991 Munday joined with Terry Ellis again at his new company, Imago Records.

Career
Munday began her career with Charles Hansen Music's UK office, where she supervised the licensing of songs for sheet music as well as compiled music folios.

She joined Music Sales in 1972. In addition to copyright management, she formed a Public Relations department and was editor of many of the sheet music folios published for retail sale.

At Big Pig Music, she managed the copyrights and licensing, working with founders Elton John and Bernie Taupin.

In 1975, Munday was brought into Chrysalis Music UK, to manage their copyrights, find independent songwriters, and placing songs with their artists, which included Jethro Tull, Steel Eye Span, and Ten Years After.

Chrysalis Records pulled out of their US distribution deal with Warner Bros. in 1976, and switched to independent music distributors. The founders/owners, Chris Wright and Terry Ellis decided that that Chrysalis needed a US publishing presence and sent Munday to establish an operation in Los Angeles as its General Manager. She was later \promoted to Vice President, running the division, overseeing signing of new writers, managing staff to file copyrights for songs, and finding artists to place songs on their records. There she worked to sign new composers and work with the label's artists, including Blondie, Jethro Tull, Billy Idol, and Pat Benetar. She also worked with Carlene Carter, Frank Wildhorn who wrote Where Do Broken Hearts Go for Whitney Houston, Jack Lee, who composed Hanging on the Telephone, covered by Blondie, Come Back and Stay, covered by Paul Young and You Are My Lover, recorded by Suzi Quatro.

After leaving Chrysalis, Ann managed country singer/songwriter Carlene Carter. Negotiated a record deal with Warner Bros Records, Nashville and subsequently with Irving Azoff's Giant Records. In 1988 Ann went into partnership with Jim Beach (Queen's manager) and Paul Lillie (Chris Rea's Manager) forming Real Life. Continued to manage Carlene Carter, as well as Robin Beck with "First Time"

After selling his share of Chrysalis Records, Terry Ellis started a new label in 1990, Imago Records. He brought Munday in to run the publishing divisions.

Ann Munday is among a handful of women in the music industry in the 1970s and 1980s who broke the glass ceiling, rising to VP General Manger. In the 21st Century, the music business is still dominated by men. Munday was one of six women executives profiled and interviewed in Cosmopolitan's 1982 article on Women in the business side of the Music Business. She was one of only a few women executives included in the chapter about women in the business side of the music industry in the encyclopedic book, She Bop: The Definitive History of Women in Rock, Pop and Soul, which primarily focused on women musicians and vocalists. , according to an 2021 Annenberg study, "...across 70 major and independent music companies... 13.9% were women". Women fare far better outside the music industry; according to a 2021 report by U.S. News & World Report, “Women held 31.7% of top executive positions across all industries…”

Work on the “All Different All Equal” Campaign
In 1997 to 2000, Munday was a juror for the media awards for the “All Different All Equal” (ADAE) campaign during the European Year Against Racism. She also produced a music magazine for the campaign.

Credits

 * Editor Great songs of World War II London: Wise Publications, 1975. ISBN 0-86001-041-4.


 * Editor Original Masters, music book of Steel Eye Span album by the same name. Chrysalis Music, 1977 ISBN 0-86001-490-8