PPL has today (February 10) revealed it collected a new record of international monies in 2021.
The UK music licensing company collected £94 million last year, 9.4% up on its 2020 total.
Speaking about the results, Peter Leathem, CEO at PPL, said: “I am extremely proud of yet another record year for PPL’s international collections. It cements our position as the world’s leading international neighbouring rights company, a position we hold thanks to sustained investment in our sector-leading data, technology, operations and talented team of neighbouring rights experts who work tirelessly to claim royalties on behalf of our members. These results also partly reflect the strength of UK music abroad. Our country produces some of the world’s most commercially and critically successful artists and it is a privilege to represent and defend their neighbouring rights.”
In an official press release, PPL attributed the record collections to “a number of factors", one being their work on “improving recording metadata and the identification of recording usage, which has helped it to claim and collect more revenue.”
PPL also notes it has worked with other CMOs to do this, notably using the Virtual Recording Database of performer CMO association SCAPR to drive performer royalty collections. VRDB is “a centralised system that allows performer CMOs to better identify recordings and improve and share performer line-ups on those recordings.”
Currently PPL has 105 agreements with CMOs across Africa, Asia, Australia, Europe, and North and South America. Since 2006 it has collected nearly £700 million of international revenue.
We're set-up to maximise neighbouring rights income for performers and recording rightsholders, supporting their careers and businesses through a difficult time for the industry
Peter Leathem, PPL
Speaking about the results, Laurence Oxenbury, director of international at PPL, said: “As a global service provider for the music industry, it is fantastic that PPL has delivered a record result for the tens of thousands of performers and recording rightsholders who trust us with their international collections. Each year we improve the technological and operational systems that allow us to claim royalties for our members and develop the already excellent relationships we have with CMOs around the world. These systems and relationships are why PPL is the market leader in international neighbouring rights collections and have helped us collect nearly £700 million in revenue since our international service began in 2006. I’d like to thank the team at PPL, as well as the teams at each CMO we work with, for their hard work. The long-standing, collaborative relationships we have with our partners are crucial to performers and recording rightsholders getting paid and the £94 million we collected in 2021 is a testament to their efforts.”
Leathem added: “Neighbouring rights has always been an important revenue stream for our members and never more so than throughout the Covid-19 pandemic. That will continue to be the case as we slowly emerge from the crisis. Effects of the pandemic will continue to be felt on our collections for a number of years and this will include our International revenue. However, today’s results show that we are set-up to maximise neighbouring rights income for performers and recording rightsholders, supporting their careers and businesses through a difficult time for the industry and ensuring they get paid for when their music is played.”
