International revenue
The largest international collector of neighbouring rights revenue, covering 95% of the market by value.
Growth in collections from the majority of CMOs
International revenue, collected on behalf of mandated members through PPL’s network of agreements with CMOs in other countries, reached £75.4 million in 2023, a small decline from £77.8 million in 2022.
We now have 111 agreements with fellow CMOs in more than 50 countries. We saw annual growth in collections from the majority of CMOs in 2023. Payments were received for the first time from CMOs in Guatemala and Indonesia, and we signed deals to open up new markets, including with the Indian Singers’ and Musicians’ Rights Association (ISAMRA) and RAYS in Azerbaijan. The number of performers choosing PPL for their international collections continued to rise amid a competitive marketplace, including artists such as Lewis Thompson, Isata Kanneh-Mason, Libianca and Trevor Horn.
This positive growth was offset by the impact of declining revenues from monies for past periods already successfully collected by PPL, combined with the residual effect of several years of disrupted collections due to the repercussions of Covid-19 on many businesses. This led to a slight year-on-year comparative reduction in total income.
Overall, we are seeing international revenue settle into a more standardised pattern following some exceptional years of past monies pay-through and are forecasting steadier growth going forward. We continue to focus on the long-term competitiveness of the business and the potential for growth as the overall neighbouring rights market expands.
An end-to-end service for fellow CMOs
We continue to successfully deliver back-office services to six CMOs around the world. In 2023, we provided entry-level services to our three Baltic customers EFU (Estonia), LaIPA (Latvia), and AGATA (Lithuania), matching airplay data to the PPL Repertoire Database and reporting the data back for use in licensing and distributions.
We also provided distribution calculation and reporting services to CMO customers Audiogest (Portugal), PPI (Ireland), and SFH (Iceland). This work helps other CMOs to deliver distributions to their members on time, to improve the quality of data in their own databases, and to maximise their licensing revenue. We continue to generate interest in our Business Services offering, with a number of CMOs actively exploring this opportunity with PPL.
Tuning in to the needs of Iceland’s SFH
In March 2022, Iceland’s SFH became the latest CMO to join the growing Business Services client list, signing a five-year deal on PPL’s support in the distribution of royalties to performers and recording rightsholders based outside of Iceland.
A year later, for Gunnar Guðmundsson, Managing Director at SFH, the partnership has proved to be a win-win. “Our aim at SFH is to collect and distribute as much money as possible for the performers and recording rightsholders locally and internationally. Using PPL means we can do this for international performers and recording rightsholders as timely and accurately as we do distributions for local artists. What’s more, we can do it without eating too heavily into our revenues. We sought cooperation with PPL because of how effective it is and how much experience it has in this field. This first year has certainly confirmed our good expectations in this teamwork.”