British rights society PRS for Music has collected a record £810.8 million ($981m) on behalf of its songwriter, composer and music publisher members in 2019, a year-on-year increase of 8.7%. The society distributed £686m in music royalties, a 13.7% increase year-on-year.
Net costs for collecting royalties was down 6.7% year-on-year to £87.5m, and after charitable donations of £3.2m, resulted in distributable revenue to members of £721.1m.
“It is testament to the creative talent of our 145,500 members that royalty revenues from their music have continued to grow," said PRS for Music CEO Andrea C. Martin. "The UK is a centre of creative excellence and this is something we should all be proud of and work to protect and promote. The way we consume music continues to change and PRS has made considerable investments over the last decade to ensure we’re well placed to capture future growth. Key for the industry is that all levels of the creative community can benefit from this growth."
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| PRS for Music's Andrea Martin |
The company disclosed that it had processed 18.8 trillion ‘performances’ of music, including audio and video streams, downloads, broadcasts and live music shows, a 67.8% increase on 2018.
> Royalties from online platforms grew by 24.2% to £179.1m on a constant currency basis. This category includes royalties generated from online platforms, including downloads, online video games, and streaming services such as Spotifyand Apple Music. In 2018, PRS for Music licensed Mixcloud, Facebook and Instagram, with royalties from these platforms starting to flow in 2019. Music used across video-on-demand offerings including Netflixand Amazon Prime, also contributed to the uplift in online revenue.
> International royalty income reached £278.7m, collected through reciprocal agreements with societies around the world, slight down from 2018 (-1.1%). Over the past fine years, international revenue grew 33.6%, reflecting the strength of British repertoire globally. International royalty income is PRS for Music's largest revenue stream.
> Royalties from live performances of music in the UK and music used in UK business premises reached £222.2m, up 15.7% compared to 2018. It is PRS for Music’s second biggest area of revenue growth. Thanks to tours by the likes of the Spice Girls, Take That, Ariana Grande, BTS, Drake, Michael Bublé, and P!nk, the live music sector itself delivered royalties up 38.8% to £54m in 2019. Income from broadcasters including the BBC and ITV, totalled £130.8m, up 2.4% on 2018. The growth was achieved despite what PRS said was "a decline in linear TV viewing and the rise in popularity of video-on-demand."
A decline in future royalties
Looking ahead, Martin said that PRS is now focusing its efforts on future income and distributions. "While our 2019 financial results are record-breaking, we are all too aware that due to the coronavirus pandemic, the music industry and its community faces unprecedented times ahead," she said. "With TV and film productions on hold, closure of businesses, public premises, and the cancellation of festivals, concerts and other live music events, we will inevitably see a decline in future royalties in 2020 and into 2021."
Martin said she expected the most significant impact to be on the public performance business and the royalties collected internationally. "But at this stage the exact financial impact, and how this will affect individual members, is extremely difficult to fully predict," she warned. "We are closely monitoring the situation from every angle possible and taking proactive steps to safeguard royalties and mitigate risk throughout this period of significant disruption.”
PRS also noted that the UK government had already said that it would not adopt the EU Copyright Directive, in particular Article 17 which requires user upload platforms to pay for the use of music. To remedy this situation, PRS called on the British government to adopt "a copyright regime which better reflects the online market in the UK, EU and around the world."
(Total revenue figure, international revenue and overall online revenue presented on a constant currency basis.)
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