The Phonographic Performance Ltd.: Revenue Streams and the Future

The music industry is a highly complex and extremely profitable. Popular music is seen by many as the only truly universal mass medium, and the industry as a whole is estimated to be worth between $30-40 billion. However, for many people starting out in the music industry; whether their composers, artists or session players, are unaware of the complicated process of how this money is generated and how it is distributed between the relevant parties involved. There is a large ‘hierarchy’ in the industry which money flows through and it is essential for someone that is starting out to know how the Music Industry works.

The Phonographic Performance Limited (PPL)
The PPL is the UK music industry’s licensing body. The PPL licenses sound recordings and music videos for use in broadcast, public performance and new media. They represent the recording rights owner, which is usually the record company but due to recent developments in the industry sometimes the recording artist can also be the record label. Unlike other licensing bodies the PPL is a non-profit making organisation and only take a cut for operation costs. Their aim according to Fran Nevrkla is to ‘get some recompense for the tracks that play in the background of nearly every place in Britain’. The PPL was formed by EMI and Decca in 1934 to protect songwriters’ copyrights. The PPL is also heavily linked with the VPL. The VPL was created in 1984 to carry out the same role for music videos that PPL was already carrying out for recorded music.
The PPL collected £115 million in 2007 distributing £99.5 million of this to their registered performers and record company members. This income is calculated by using play lists from commercial radio stations, television networks and Public Performance Licenses. Therefore the labels who have more of their recordings played on the play list will get more money. Broadcasters bring in the majority of the PPL’s revenue, the BBC being the largest. They also receive licence

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