We caught up with him at one of the busiest times in his schedule (sorry, Richard!) to find out more about his role, his remit, and his music recommendations
Richard, what made you want to be part of PPL – and what were you doing before?
I joined in 2009, so I’m now in my 16th year at PPL. It snowed on my first day which meant I couldn’t get to the office – but I think they’ve forgiven me for that now!
Before PPL, I worked in finance at a recruitment consultancy, and at Condé Nast, the publishing company behind titles such as Vogue and GQ. It was through a former colleague (Chris Barton, current PPL CFO) at Condé Nast that I heard about an opening at PPL. Since then I’ve moved around the business a bit, including spending 12 years as Distribution Policy Manager for Distribution.
I moved back into the Finance team at the end of 2023.
Tell us about a typical day in your role?
My typical day very much depends on where we are in the financial cycle. Recently, my focus was on our quarterly distribution payment at the end of March, where we paid a significant amount of money to our rightsholders and performer members. We’ve got to make sure that the revenue allocated is paid out correctly to the right people.
As well as that, I work closely with our Accounts Receivable Manager to understand any issues surrounding invoices out of the business and related payments. We’re always looking for things we can do to improve processes and collection strategies.
What are your top priorities right now?
The distribution payments. The Q1 payment isn’t our biggest – that’s usually in June, with the second largest payment in December. But it’s still a sizable amount and of course extremely important to PPL and to our members.
What are some of the biggest challenges of your role?
Balancing the two sides of my role – Distribution and Accounts Receivable – is a challenge. On one side it’s about money coming into PPL and how we collect revenue from licensees. On the other, it’s about the payments we make to members. There are a lot of moving parts which make it all possible, but we need to deliver on that promise. We have a great team who help it happen.
What’s the most rewarding thing about your job?
On the day our quarterly payments go out, we check the bank and it’s always a satisfying feeling to know payments are on their way to members. There’s a big sense of achievement after all the work that goes into making sure that payment goes out. All the hours are worth it!
Quite often people contact us to say thank you. It’s great to know that what we’re doing makes a difference.
When it comes to new music, who are your ones to watch?
In my current role, I get to see a lot of the performers that we’re recruiting – new or rising stars who are coming up in the music world. So from that perspective, I’m looking at performers such as Artemas or Alex Warren and hoping they do well.
What’s a track that always makes you smile – and why?
Anything on ‘A Kind of Magic’ by Queen. The whole album reminds me of my Dad.
And finally, what track should everyone have on their playlist?
It’s not a new one, but I’d say ‘In the End’ by Linkin Park. Theirs was the first gig I ever went to.
