KEY POINTS:
For the first time, performers at the national kapa haka festival, Te Matatini will have to obtain copyright permission if they want to use modern tunes in their performances.
The change is one of several moves to "professionalise" the 36-year-old biennial competition, its adviser, Wira Gardiner, said.
Previous festival competitors have used a range of music from pop culture including from the movie The Lion King, arias from past Qantas advertisements, R Kelly's I Believe I Can Fly and songs from artist Seal.
The change has not been popular in all quarters. Some leaders among the 36 teams say they have been preparing and practising their pieces for Te Matatini for months, so the copyright rule should have been introduced as soon as teams won their regional competitions.
But this year as the competition looks to copyright original items so any proceeds from repeat use can return to groups, getting permission from the Australasian Performing Right Association to use other music was a case of practising what you preach and not being hypocritical, Mr Gardiner said.
"We had to go to APRA and work out who owned the rights and clearly the intellectual property belongs to the groups. But if we professionalise ourselves, we have to take the consequences of what that means, including according respect to other people's intellectual property."
APRA's executive director of New Zealand operations Anthony Healey said copyright licences had been sought for fewer than 20 songs, and only one had been denied.
The cost of gaining permission wouldn't be known until after the event, partly because the cost of licences to perform songs in public was based on a percentage of ticket sales.
After making losses this decade ranging from $400,000 to $1 million, Te Matatini had spent the past six months improving its governance and business practices, Mr Gardiner said.
Copyrighting was one component of that move; others included slashing spending on non-core activities, and cutting ticket prices.
"There is a tension over commercialising," Mr Gardiner said. "One of the things about kapa haka people is that all they want to do is get up on a stage and win. But administrators want to let them win, generate some income and give them that income."
Te Arawa's Trevor Maxwell, who led two-time champion group Ngati Rangiwewehi, said he was pleased with the management changes.
They've paved the way to seeing his region return to the national fold after five years of boycotting it because it opposed the way Te Matatini was run, including the large amount of hip hop entertainment at past events.
"They're concentrating on what the core of Te Matatini is all about - kapa haka. We're really excited to be coming back to what it's all about."
More than 30,000 are expected at the four-day Tauranga festival, which starts on Thursday.
