International collections of neighbouring rights money at UK recorded music licensing body PPL jumped 34% last year to £49.1m ($61m).
The haul was PPL’s largest ever annual international collection, and came after four relatively flat years between 2012 and 2015 (inclusive).
Revenue was collected from 33 countries in 2016, with major growth in contributions across France, Italy and Brazil in particular.
The jump in 2016 revenue was helped by the weakening of the pound against the Euro following Brexit: from a currency neutral perspective, international collections grew by 18%.
Peter Leathem, PPL Chief Executive (pictured) said, “I am very proud that PPL has been able to maintain the highest quality service, whilst ensuring continuous all-round growth and another record collection for our 90,000 members. The main reasons for this continued growth are our unrivalled relationships with global CMOs, as well as improved efficiency and processes in terms of the way we work with them.
“PPL is very pleased to have achieved this record collection, which is consistent with our key goal to maximise our members’ earnings, and we are very optimistic about what 2017 has in store.”
The news is likely to particularly benefit performers: according to stats in PPL annual review of 2013, 87% of that year’s neighbouring rights collections was on behalf of performers, with 13% for labels/rights-holders.
Laurence Oxenbury, Director of International, PPL said: “PPL revenues, whether they be from the UK or globally are an integral part of both record companies’ and performers’ income. Whilst the global market is still immature and there are data and volume challenges, PPL’s long term investment, expansion and vision ensures that our talented members continue to benefit from this market. The fact that we prioritise both customer service and data innovation means that we are able to offer both performers and record labels an outstanding international service and just deduct our costs, which currently stand overall at 7 per cent”.
PL now has 82 international collection agreements in place across 42 countries and receives over a third of all performer neighbouring rights payments moving between CMOs (collective management organisations) globally.Music Business Worldwide
