PPL makes payment of £63.1 million to 98,000 performers and recording rightsholders in June distribution

These include not just direct members of PPL but also those performers and recording rightsholders represented in the UK via the agreements the company has in place with overseas collective management organisations (CMOs).

This payment, which includes monies from PPL’s UK and international activities, is the company’s June distribution, with revenues generated by the licensing of recorded music when broadcast and played in public. The £63.1 million being paid out in June follows the advance payment of £23.9 million made to more than 15,000 performers and recording rightsholders in April to support the music community during the initial stages of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The payment follows the announcement of PPL’s financial results for 2019, where the company announced a 10% (or £25 million) increase in revenues. Growth was derived from strong performances across all of PPL’s three core revenue streams.

Revenue from public performance and dubbing in 2019 totalled £99.6 million, representing an increase of 8% (or £7.3 million) from the prior year – a positive result from the second year of the company’s public performance joint venture with PRS for Music – PPL PRS Ltd. Broadcast licensing revenue grew year-on-year by 2% (or £1.9 million) to £85.5 million. The 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.

2019 saw a further year of growth for PPL’s international collections, reaching £86.7 million by the end of the year. This represented the highest ever annual returns for both performers and recording rightsholders, and reflected the efficiencies derived from effective collaboration with international counterparts and the company’s investment in leading-edge technology and data infrastructure as well as the extent of PPL’s market coverage. PPL now has more than 100 agreements in place with CMOs around the world. As a result of recently signed international agreements, this June distribution contains first time payments for recording rightsholders from CMOs in South Africa and Ukraine.

Underpinning PPL’s collections and distributions is a suite of tools and initiatives to support the management and analysis of increasing amounts of data. PPL now holds data relating to more than 16.5 million recordings in the PPL Repertoire Database and continue to receive data for tens of thousands of recordings each week. The company has invested in technology, developed innovative analytics tools and partnered with forward-thinking tech start-ups like Session and Sound Credit to ensure that the data they process and share is accurate. These partnerships fit perfectly with their wider strategic objective to continue standardising and improving the data supply chain across the world.

Peter Leathem, Chief Executive Officer at PPL said: “PPL has a growing membership, new agreements with our overseas counterparts, and record levels of data flowing through the company. Underpinning all of this is a dedicated team of experts, making it possible for PPL to pay more than 98,000 performers and recording rightsholders, be they a session musician, renowned artist, small independent label or major record company. With this latest payment, we are proud to say that we have paid out almost £175 million in the first half of this year. This will be very much welcomed by many who have been impacted by the current crisis.”