Today UK music licensing company PPL announces that, in 2022, it paid out £244.9 million (7.1% increase from £228.7 million in 2021) to 165,000 performers and recording rightsholders (12.2% increase from 147,000 in 2021), either as direct members of PPL or indirectly through other collective management organisations (CMOs). These monies were collected by PPL for the use of recorded music in the UK and internationally and were paid out across the company’s four quarterly distributions in 2022, in March, June, September and December.
This marks the highest number of performers and recording rightsholders ever paid by PPL in a calendar year, and it also marks the second highest total of monies paid out by PPL in a calendar year, the highest being £260.2 million in 2020, a total achieved thanks to the record collections of £271.8 million the previous year in 2019, before the adverse impact of the COVID pandemic.
The record number of performers and recording rightsholders being paid reflects both the important technological and operational investments made by PPL and the neighbouring rights industry over the last decade, as well as the growing membership of PPL.
Technology
PPL has one of the most comprehensive repertoire databases of its kind in the world, holding detailed performer and recording rightsholder information on more than 20 million recordings. Over the last 3 years, on average 45,000 new recording details have been received each week. It also works closely with partner organisations across the music industry to develop the technology and operations that underpin the neighbouring rights sector, helping to improve the quality of recording metadata as well as the identification of recording usage. This includes building and then operating IFPI and WIN’s RDx data exchange portal (to support the dissemination of recording data from record companies to neighbouring rights CMOs around the world) and being an important player in SCAPR’s Virtual Recording Database (VRDB) which is improving the quality, use and sharing of performer line-ups on recordings. Both promote the more accurate and efficient distribution of payments to record companies and performers.
Peter Leathem OBE, PPL Chief Executive Officer, said: “Over the last decade PPL has become one of the world’s most successful neighbouring rights companies. Not only do we collect hundreds of millions of pounds from the UK and around the world, but each year we distribute this money to more and more performers and recording rightsholders than before. This is a testament to both the expert team we have at PPL but also to the efforts of the sector as a whole. Initiatives such as SCAPR’s VRDB and IFPI and WIN’s RDx are improving the technology and data which support the worldwide distribution of neighbouring rights, so ensuring the right people and organisations are paid when their recordings are played.
It is also positive to be able to pay out more money to performers and recording rightsholders than we did in 2021. Neighbouring rights was naturally impacted by COVID-19 but the sector continues to recover well, with more growth expected in 2023.”
