UK Royalties
In the UK, we receive reporting and information on recorded music played by radio and TV broadcasters, music suppliers and UK businesses. From this information, we match the recorded music played against the PPL Repertoire Database, which contains information on more than 28 million commercially released recordings.
An amount of money is then allocated to each recording used, depending on how often it has been played in public or broadcast. This amount is affected by factors such as on which radio station or TV channel the recording has been played, the amount of airplay it has received and the size of the audience.
Where the money relates to the licensing of recorded music being played in public or broadcast (after the allocation and deduction of costs), one half of the money is allocated to the relevant recording rightsholder member, and the other half is allocated to the performers who qualify to receive royalties on the recorded music. The right for performers to receive a share of this licensing income is sometimes referred to as equitable remuneration.
Before a performer’s share is distributed, PPL checks that the performer qualifies to receive equitable remuneration for that track. If the performer does not qualify in respect of the track then the obligation to pay equitable remuneration does not apply and the provisional allocation in respect of that performances is paid to the relevant recording rightsholder(s).
If there is more than one performer listed on a recording, the performer royalties are distributed between them either in accordance with a performer share agreement or PPL’s Performer Allocation Policy. Further detail on performer allocations can be found in our Distribution Rules, particularly rule 12 and schedule 5.
Where the money relates to the licensing of an activity where performers do not have a right to receive royalties (such as the copying of the track) all the money is allocated to the relevant recording rightsholder.
International Royalties
For international royalties, PPL has agreements with collective management organisations (CMOs) around the world. Our agreements span almost the entire global market for neighbouring rights collections.
Each CMO has its own set of rules that they apply to calculate their payments to performers and recording rightsholders. As experts in each market, the PPL team work closely with our partner CMOs to ensure the most effective collection and distribution of revenue for the members we represent.
The PPL Board has also approved a separate set of International Distribution Rules which apply to the distribution of revenue received from PPL’s International Royalties Collection Service.