PPL has today (January 29) announced its largest ever annual international collection of £70.9 million – representing a rise of over 40% from 2017 to 2018.
The growth of 43 per cent on the total achieved in 2017 (£49.6 million) follows sustained longer-term growth for PPL’s international collections business. Originally launching its service in 2006, when it collected £6 million, PPL states it has now collected a total of £429.1 million of international monies since then.
Speaking about the growth, Peter Leathem, chief executive officer, PPL said: “PPL has a responsibility to all of the performers and recording rightsholders that we represent to ensure that creative work is paid accurately and fairly. We are the most active CMO in the Neighbouring Rights market, and the largest collector of performers’ revenue internationally. I am proud that PPL has delivered a year of significant international growth with this record annual collection – this is testament to the specialist knowledge, experience, drive and determination of the team at PPL. As we edge closer to collecting half a billion pounds internationally since 2006, we want to acknowledge the sheer quality of musical output from the UK, and the industry’s level of consistency in developing talent that is in demand all over the world.”
PPL have 92 international collection agreements – which collects monies overseas for the playing in public and broadcast of recorded music on TV and radio, as well as for private copying – in place around the world. PPL receives almost half (43 per cent) of all performer neighbouring rights payments moving between collective management organisations (CMOs) globally.
Global engagement grew throughout 2018 with the company signing six new international collection agreements: AGATA (Lithuania), UPFR (Romania), Audiogest (Portugal) and Brumusic (Brunei) for recording rightsholders; and GCA (Georgia) and AKDIE (Albania) for performers. Other first-time payments in 2018 came from performer CMOs IPF (Slovenia) and SAMPRA (South Africa) and recording rightsholder CMO, Slovgram (Slovakia), all of which signed agreements with PPL in 2017.
Notable payments were received in 2018 from Belgium, France, the Netherlands and Canada. A significant payment was also received from GVL, the German CMO for performers and recording rightsholders.
Laurence Oxenbury, director of international, PPL said: “At PPL we are honoured by the trust our members place in us to manage their valuable rights. We are extremely proud that our collections play a vital role in helping recording rightsholders be in a position to continue investing in new music, and for playing our part in performers, including session musicians, having a real, tangible career in the music industry.”
He continued: “We will continue to hold ourselves to high standards and to drive forward efficiency and accuracy in this global, data-rich industry. We have a wealth of experience in our team and we want to ensure that we continue to deliver the best international collections service possible, both for our members, and for the recorded music industry as a whole.”
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