France's SCPP collected €89m in 2019, down 3.7%

By Emmanuel Legrand

French neighbouring rights society SCPP collected €89 million in 2019, down 3.7% compared to 2018 (€91.5m). Marc Guez, director general of SCPP, said the decline in collections was anticipated, due mainly to a significant drop in revenues from the broadcasting of music videos (down 19% year-on-year). Guez added that the organisation still managed to beat budget by 4%, thanks mainly from revenues from public performances that were up by 3.7%.

  Aside from the drop of revenues from music videos, which resulted in a downfall of €2m, SCPP also suffered a slight decline in the proceeds from private copying (down 4.7%). The latter was due to a decrease in regularisation from some main accounts after 2018 during which collections benefited from significant adjustments from previous years (€3m in 2018 versus €1.5m in 2019). According to Guez, there are only two main regularisation expected in the years to come with two manufacturers of hard drives.

Drop in revenues from videos

  Guez said he expected more or less a similar situation in 2020, with a continuous drop in revenues from music videos as traditional TV channels are showing less videos while the audience migrates online, especially to YouTube, to watch music videos (SCPP does not collect from YouTube).

  SCPP's membership consists of the three major record companies and some 3,000 independent labels. It collects monies from the equitable remuneration (use of recordings on radio, TV and in public spaces) and from France's private copying scheme.

  SCPP distributed to its members €85.6m in 2019, a 2.7% drop compared to the previous year in line with the drop in collections. SCPP's administration costs are set at 7.8%, which Guez described as "one of the lowest in Europe." Distribution also included €21.4m in subsidies, which were allocated to 1,219 cultural projects.

Mediation with SPPF

   During a press gathering in Paris, Guez also alluded to the state of the relationship with the other society representing record labels, SPPF. The two societies had a tense relationship for the past two years with SPPF taking SCPP to court over the splits between them on the pot of non-attributable monies.

  Guez disclosed that the two societies have entered into a mediation on December 23, 2019, unrelated to the judiciary procedures. He declined to comment further, citing confidentiality rules that the two societies agreed on (including naming the person in charge of the mediation). Sources said that the voluntary mediation could also bring back to the table a discussion about the conditions for the two societies to merge, a project that was already discussed a few years ago but failed to deliver a tangible outcome.