The UK’s Mechanical-Copyright Protection Society (MCPS) reached GBP £188.4 million (USD $232.3m) in member distributions in 2022, the highest since 2007.
MCPS collects royalties for over 34,000 publishers, songwriters, and composers when their music is copied or reproduced.
The figure was up by £6.7 million versus 2021 and followed a period of revenue decline.
Elsewhere in the UK, which is the world’s third largest recorded music market, distributions made by UK music licensing company PPL reached £244.9 million in 2022, up 7.1% year over year. Its revenue rose 7.8% YoY to an all-time high of £272.6 million.
Meanwhile, MCPS attributed its continued recovery to the rise in popularity of streaming services such as Spotify, Apple Music, and Amazon Music and robust distributions from international receipts.
The society said it has also capitalized on the resurgence of physical music products, with vinyl being a notable highlight.
In 2022, MCPS’s membership grew by 7.5%, or by 2,284 new members. It came as the society slashed its commission rates since August 2022 by 10% for all members.
MCPS, unlike many other performing rights organizations (PROs) and collective management organizations (CMOs) worldwide, has traditionally operated on a fixed commission basis.
But after conducting an evaluation of its business performance, including consistent year-on-year growth in member distributions over the past three years and forecasting commission earnings for the upcoming years, the MCPS board last year made a decision to reduce the organization’s commission rate structure.
The 2022 distribution also included the payment of all excess commissions generated by MCPS totaling £7.2 million
“MCPS is committed to driving up value, efficiency and leaving nothing on the table due to publishers, songwriters and composers,” said MCPS CEO Paul Clements.
“Despite facing recent challenges such as the global pandemic, the united MCPS Board and management team have worked tirelessly for our members. As our centenary approaches, we reflect on our achievements and are determined to press hard for further positive innovations for our members.”
Jackie Alway OBE, MCPS
“We pride ourselves on optimizing our service through effective and innovative strategies, protecting mechanical rights and delivering maximum return for our members. We are very excited about celebrating our centenary next year in 2024 but will of course continue to primarily focus our attentions on increasing member distributions further, and at the most cost-effective rates.”
The organization, owned by the Music Publishers Association, will celebrate its second century in 2024. MCPS said it “remains steadfast in preserving its heritage as the mechanical collection society of choice for the music publishing and creator communities.”
“Despite facing recent challenges such as the global pandemic, the united MCPS Board and management team have worked tirelessly for our members. As our centenary approaches, we reflect on our achievements and are determined to press hard for further positive innovations for our members,” MCPS Chair Jackie Alway OBE said.
In 2017, MCPS signed a long-term agreement with PRS For Music after previously exiting its alliance with PRS. Under their service agreement, PRS provides rights management and administrative services to MCPS.
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