Record year for PPL in 2019 with collections of £271.8m

By Emmanuel Legrand

British neighbouring rights society PPL collected a total of £271.8 million (€305m) on behalf of its performers and recording rights holders members, up 10% on 2018's figure. PPL said growth was achieved across all three of the society's revenue streams; broadcast and online; public performance and dubbing; and international collections.

  PPL does not disclose the royalties distributed to its members, except to say that PPL distributed money in 2019 at least once to over 108,000 performers and 11,000 recording rights holders, against 94,000 performers and 10,000 recording rights holders in 2018. 

  “2019 was a positive year for PPL as we saw record revenues and paid out performance royalties to more performers and recording rightsholders than ever before. Such success benefits the growing community that we represent both in the UK and internationally," said PPL Chief Executive Officer Peter Leathem.

   PPL’s revenue from the use of recorded music across licensed broadcast and online linear services increased by 2% to £85.5m in 2019. PPL said radio's growth "was driven in part by a rise in advertising income from the commercial radio sector and by an increase in the number of smaller radio broadcasters and online linear webcasters acquiring licences." The company signed in 2019 several major long-term licensing deals for a range of public service and commercial broadcasters and TV programme distributors.   

Simplifying music licensing

  Public performance and dubbing income was up 8% to £99.6m in 2019. The use of music in public spaces has been handled for the second consecutive full year by PPL’s public performance licensing joint venture with PRS for Music – PPL PRS Ltd – which licenses and administers TheMusicLicence, a joint license which covers the rights for recordings and compositions.

  "Close working between the three companies has enabled more customers to transition to TheMusicLicence over the course of the year," noted the company. "Customers now benefit from a streamlined service, a single point of contact and one licence covering both companies’ respective rights, thereby simplifying the administration and making it easier to acquire a licence to play and perform music in public."

    PPL’s international collections grew by 22% to £86.7m. This increase was driven by revenue from a number of collective management organisations operating in countries such as Germany, France, USA and the Netherlands. PPL also said that throughout 2019, it also received royalties from a number of territories for the first time, including CMOs in Africa and Latin America. PPL collects international royalties mostly on behalf of performers and musicians who give the society mandate to collect on their behalf. Most labels collect directly from CMOs around the world. PPL now has more than 95 international agreements with its counterparts around the world, adding in 2019 six new bilateral agreements with CMOs in Asia, Europe and North America.

Supporting members during the pandemic

 
  PPL noted that its distributions "provide an important revenue stream to its members, who include both independent and major record companies, together with performers ranging from emerging grassroots artists through to established session musicians and globally renowned artists." In response to the Covid-19 pandemic, PPL paid in Q1 2020 a record £87.6m and it also paid out £23.9m in April, as an advance on its forthcoming June distribution.  

 

  Said Leathem (pictured, above): "The strength of our collections and business operations meant that PPL has been in a position to take additional steps to help our members and the wider music community during the current crisis. In March, we made a payment of £87.6 million to over 26,000 performers and recording rightsholders, with a further advance payment of £23.9 million in April, to over 15,000 performers and recording rightsholders. In addition, we have made and will continue to make a number of contributions to industry hardship funds in order to bring support to those who need it most during these times.”