LONDON (CelebrityAccess) — The British music copyright collective Phonographic Performance Limited announced the passing of the company’s longtime General Counsel David Harmsworth after a short illness. He was 46.
A graduate of Cambridge University, Harmsworth began his career at the law firm Mayer, Brown, Rowe & Maw before joining the Legal & Business Affairs team at PPL in 2003.
During his long tenure at PPL, he played a key role in the 2006 merger of PAMRA and AURA with PPL to create a single home for performers and record companies, and the creation of the public performance licensing joint venture PPL PRS Ltd in 2018.
Along with his work at PPL, Harmsworth also served as the chair of the UK Music Ltd Rights & Legal Affairs Committee, a director of the British Copyright Council, chair of the BCC Collective Management Organization, and sat on the BPI (British Phonographic Industry) Rights Committee.
According to PPL, Harmsworth was a lifelong fan of the Arsenal Football Club and a noted baker whose cakes were legendary around the PPL office.
“David was my first appointment at PPL 19 years ago and he turned out to be one of the key people who created the PPL of today. An incredibly able lawyer, a thoroughly kind and conscientious friend and colleague. I will miss him greatly. His ability and his friendly and collaborative nature made him very popular across the music industry and creative copyright world more generally, which is why he operated in so many external roles as well as his role at PPL. He will be missed by so many and my thoughts, and those of everyone at PPL, are with his wife Heather, his three young children and their families,” stated PPL’s Peter Leatham, OBE.
