Elizabeth Matthews is the CEO of ASCAP, the collection and licensing body in the United States.
Matthews joined ASCAP in 2013 as EVP and General Counsel, before stepping up to Chief Executive in January 2015.
Under her tenure, ASCAP has grown to house over 800,000 songwriter, composer and music publisher members.
The body pays out over $1 billion each calendar year to its members.
Elizabeth Matthews: Pre-ASCAP career
Prior to ASCAP, Elizabeth Matthews served as Executive Vice President and Deputy General Counsel at Viacom Media Networks (formerly MTV Networks), the home of MTV and Comedy Central.
Matthews worked at Viacom for 15 years straight. There, she oversaw the VMN Business and Legal Affairs teams covering Advertising, Content Distribution and Marketing, New Business Development, Global Digital and New Media, as well as the VMN Mergers and Acquisitions Pipeline, Research and various Ancillary Businesses.
She was also responsible for drafting, structuring, reviewing and negotiation of commercial transactions across Viacom Media Networks’ programming services, including MTV, Comedy Central, VH1, CMT, Spike and Nickelodeon, among others.
“As new media platforms transform how we listen to music, it is critical that we evolve our own business models and update outdated music licensing laws to better reflect the reality of today’s music marketplace.”
Elizabeth Matthews, speaking 2015
Prior to joining Viacom, Matthews worked in the Intellectual Property and Corporate Groups for Chadbourne & Parke and the Business TechnologyGroup for Milbank, Tweed, Hadley & McCloy.
On taking the role as CEO at ASCAP in 2015, Matthews said: “ASCAP is an expansive, forward-looking and adaptive service organization that successfully built and grew the market for performance rights for songwriters and publishers in the United States. As CEO, I am excited about building on our unique assets to offer new, innovative services to our members and licensing partners.
“As new media platforms transform how we listen to music, it is critical that we evolve our own business models and update outdated music licensing laws to better reflect the reality of today’s music marketplace.”Music Business Worldwide