Chair’s Statement AGM 2021
At last year’s AGM, I spent a good part of my speech talking about COVID-19 and the impact it was having on PPL’s operations and the wider music industry. Nine months on from that meeting and we have only now just re-opened our office again following the relaxing of government lockdown restrictions, allowing staff to return on a voluntary basis. However, the vast majority of our employees are still working remotely and it will not be until September at the earliest when we will have a more comprehensive return to the office.
We explained during last year’s AGM that PPL’s revenues would be affected by COVID-19, although at the time it was difficult to know to what extent, given the unpredictability of when the pandemic would be under control and when it would be safe for various lockdown restrictions to end. You will hear in detail from other speakers this afternoon about precisely what impact the pandemic has had on our 2020 financial results, how it will affect our numbers going forward and how the business will successfully emerge from it.
What has become abundantly clear over the last year – if we didn’t know this already – is how important the distributions we make are to our members. This has been especially the case during an extended period of time when large parts of the music industry have been closed, in particular the live sector. For some of our performer members, this has struck a devastating blow to their livelihoods and they have been struggling to get by. More than a year since the beginning of the first lockdown, there is still no definite date in sight as to when the live sector can fully re-open and gigs and festivals can be at full capacity.
Beginning with the cancellation of the Glastonbury Festival, which should have been taking place later this month, the UK’s music festivals programme has been hit for a second successive summer, and many tours that were postponed last year and pushed back to 2021 can still not yet happen. This dire situation has been made worse by the absence of commercial insurance cover for the cancellation of live events, which means organising any kind of event is fraught with risk because pandemic restrictions could suddenly change and it might have to be postponed or cancelled at a moment’s notice. PPL has been part of continuous industry lobbying efforts to ministers and officials at the Treasury and DCMS to provide such cover, but so far our calls have not been answered.
All this makes what PPL has been able to do for its members and the wider music community so important. During this difficult period, PPL has moved heaven and earth to maximise payments to our performer and recording rightsholder members, resulting in more than £300 million having been distributed to members in the 12 months since the start of the first lockdown in March 2020. These payments have been coupled with the generous and continuous support that PPL has provided through a number of donations to the various industry hardship funds that were set up in the wake of COVID-19. Across 2020, PPL donated £1.4 million to hardship funds administered by AIM, the BPI, Help Musicians, the Music Managers Forum, the Musicians’ Union and Stagehand.
PPL’s support did not stop there, as it has made further donations in 2021 to Help Musicians, the MMF and Stagehand. This money has provided a lifeline to countless musicians and freelancers whose incomes have completely dried up during the pandemic and who do not qualify for support from any government COVID relief schemes. I am incredibly proud of how PPL has risen magnificently to the challenge and provided this vital support, which also includes helping grassroots music venues that stayed closed for many months because of lockdown, and charities who are assisting musicians with their mental health and wellbeing.
While the situation has been pretty terrible here, the situation in developing countries has been dire. To give two examples: in Kenya all clubs and venues have been closed and the government has allocated a fund of 100 million Schillings, that’s about £660,000, to be shared between musicians, actors and dancers. To benefit from this fund artists must register and place a video or a recording online to prove their artistic activity. This one-off measure was taken approximately six months after the beginning of the pandemic and has resulted in individual payments of between £50 and £100. Consequently, very few musicians have benefitted from this, as the discrepancy between the low amount offered and the paperwork necessary to be entitled to it meant that few applied. The Kenyan MU has been able to distribute food donations received from commercial companies all musicians.
In Zimbabwe the situation is worse; a government fund – the ‘Athletes and Arts Relief Fund’ of 20 million Zimbabwean dollars (approx. £40,000) has been released to help artists and athletes whose incomes have been affected by the pandemic. To benefit from this, artists have to testify to activity that has been ongoing for the past two years. Help given is one-off payments of up to 5,000 Zimbabwean dollars, that’s under £10. Fewer than 100 musicians have had access to this assistance. The union there has used its resources to purchase first-aid packs and food to help those in the most precarious situations.
This serious scenario has been replicated throughout the developing world. Add this to it the lack of available vaccines and it is clear that we must do all we can to ensure that the governments of developed nations support Covax and provide aid to these countries and, in doing so, help the many talented people who find themselves and their families in poverty with no prospects of work and who are still facing the threat of COVID-19.
Returning to our domestic situation and the donations that PPL has made to COVID hardship funds, these have not come at the expense of the many other charities we provide funding for, such as the English Schools’ Orchestra and Choir, the Young Musicians Symphony Orchestra and the PRS Foundation whose Momentum Fund for new music artists now has PPL as its headline sponsor. PPL last year also donated to several other charities for the first time, including the Benedetti Foundation, while it continues to support the BRIT School and the incredible music therapy work undertaken by Nordoff Robbins.
This support and the level of service PPL has provided to members has happened while we have faced enormous challenges of our own in terms of operating our business, including everyone working remotely for much of 2020 and into 2021. Under the inspiring leadership of Peter Leathem, what PPL has managed to achieve under these conditions has been nothing short of remarkable. It is a testament to the strength, talent and professionalism of all the team led by Peter how the business has managed to operate as near to normal as possible and continue to provide a first-class service to our members. My admiration and appreciation goes out to all of them, and I want to take this opportunity to thank them for everything they are doing.
Besides supporting music industry lobbying efforts regarding COVID, PPL has had many other legislative and public affairs issues to focus on, not least Brexit following the UK leaving the European Union on the 31st December last year. Alongside our industry colleagues, we have supported the call for more action to address the adverse impact Brexit is having on UK artists and musicians performing live in the European Economic Area, including the issues of securing work permits and transporting instruments. We have also continued to lobby government on the various post-Brexit international trade deals under discussion, the post-implementation review of the Collective Rights Management Directive and the DCMS inquiry into the future of public service broadcasting. At the start of this year, Peter Leathem was one of the witnesses at the much-debated DCMS Committee inquiry into the economics of music streaming. The inquiry included numerous references to PPL during discussions about whether streaming should be subject to equitable remuneration in the same way radio broadcasts are.
Finally, I want to take a moment to thank my fellow directors for the support that they have given to Peter and to me during this extraordinary period.
PPL is in excellent shape, despite the challenges of the pandemic, and has repeatedly demonstrated during this crisis that it is a force for good in the industry. It has yet again shown how it will stand up and support its members, while doing everything possible to ensure they receive every penny they are owed when their music is used both at home and around the world. PPL is the industry at its best and I have never been more proud of serving as its Chair than I am today. Thank you for listening.
