CEO’s statement
You will hear a lot about our 90th anniversary in 2024 – and rightly so. I have had the privilege of working with PPL for nearly three decades, seeing close up how it has developed into the successful organisation it is today.
The organisation has never been in better shape, highlighted by another set of record-breaking revenue figures, as well as the positive progress we are making on everything from equity, diversity and inclusion to the day-to-day support we are providing to our members.
In 2023, PPL’s revenue increased by 4% to a new high of £283.5 million, reflecting the dedication and hard work of our staff, alongside the partnerships and industry relationships we have in the UK and internationally. Within this, PPL PRS Ltd, our public performance joint venture with PRS for Music, reported double-digit percentage growth to over £111 million to surpass the levels it reached before the pandemic. Having been seriously tested by Covid-19 just two years into its launch, the venture is now starting to realise its full potential, with a bright future ahead.
PPL’s global footprint continued to expand, and we saw annual growth in international collections from the majority of CMOs in 2023, although the enduring effects of the pandemic were still evident in places. International collections in total reached £75.4 million, a slight decline year on year. We received first-time payments from Guatemala and Indonesia and signed new deals with ISAMRA (India) and RAYS (Azerbaijan), taking the number of agreements we have with CMOs to 111 in more than 50 countries.
Despite a downturn in the advertising market last year, PPL’s broadcast revenue increased, helped by the successful negotiation of several new licences, including with Discovery and S4C for their TV services.
No topic took up more industry bandwidth in 2023 than the opportunities and threats presented by AI, which took centre stage in a busy public affairs agenda. Our work, both directly engaging with the government and via UK Music and the British Copyright Council, included supporting industry lobbying against a government proposal for a new copyright exception for text and data mining. We were pleased to see the government withdraw this proposal early last year and commit to develop a code of practice on copyright and AI. Through UK Music, PPL contributed to a series of roundtable discussions hosted by the Intellectual Property Office to progress this initiative.
Last year, we built on our efforts to make PPL as inclusive and diverse as possible. We again voluntarily published our annual gender and ethnicity pay gap numbers, and while the latest set of figures highlighted there is always more work to be done, they clearly showed we are making positive progress.
PPL’s success as an organisation should not only be measured by our revenue numbers, but also how we are building our profile, strengthening relationships and using our influence positively within the industry.
To that end, last year we prepared for the 2024 launch of PPL Giving, an annual £1 million fund to help build a sustainable music industry for future generations. I cannot think of a better way to celebrate our 90th anniversary than by establishing a programme with a mission to create positive change in the industry.
Peter Leathem OBE
Chief Executive Officer
