Draft:Barry Coburn

Barry Coburn is a native New Zealander whose early career managing and producing rock group Split Enz in the 70's led to a decade producing international tours for legendary performers that included Muddy Waters, Elton John, Neil Diamond, Black Sabbath , The Eagles , Duke Ellington, Emmylou Harris, Chuck Berry, Roger Miller and Led Zeppelin. In many cases this led to trusted relationships with the performers. On one occasion Chuck Berry refused to go onstage for a performance until "Barry Coburn showed up with a bag of money." In 1972 Coburn was the organizer of New Zealand's original Great Ngaruawahia Music Festival -- the first major musical event ever held by the island nation.

His publishing experience eventually led him to the Nashville music scene in Tennessee where he founded an independent music publishing company, Ten Ten Music Group, which in 1985 helped shape the careers of country stars such as Diamond Rio, Holly Dunn, Suzy Bogguss, and BR5-49.

In 1988, Ten Ten Music launched the career of Alan Jackson resulting in twelve No. 1 singles, and over 13 million album sales. Between 1991 and 2005, Ten Ten Music introduced megastar Keith Urban with hits including "Tonight I Wanna Cry." and "Somebody Like You." Coburn would go on to amass a catalogue of nearly ten thousand songs that includes hundreds of recorded singles and album tracks. Between the years 1999 and 2001, Barry Coburn served as President/CEO of the Nashville division of Atlantic Records. Coburn has served on the board of directors of the Country Music Association. He was elected in 2013 to the ASCAP Foundation board of directors, and continues to serve on the Board to the present.

Coburn has also been a strong advocate for defending property rights for songwriters, helping to fight piracy and working with the US congress on copyright issues that resulted in the eventual passage of the Songwriter's Equity Act in 2015.

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