London, England. Photo Credit: Benjamin Davies
Phonographic Performance Limited (PPL) has announced that it distributed £43.2 million (currently $52.62 million) to approximately 148,000 members during the fourth quarter – a year-over-year increase of about 3.35 percent.
London-headquartered PPL just recently made (and publicly detailed) its Q4 2022 distribution, having disclosed a £41.8 million ($50.90 million) Q4 payment in 2021. The latter distribution marked a roughly 2.1 percent falloff from the same three-month stretch in 2020, when the organization had delivered £42.7 million ($51.99 million) to enrolled performers and rightsholders.
According to PPL, the Q4 2022 total reflects “payments for the highest number of performers and recording rightsholders ever paid in a quarterly distribution” and also encompasses revenue from its music-video unit, VPL.
(PPL’s Q4 2022 distribution release doesn’t attach a sum to VPL’s revenue, but the total had come in at about £0.3 million, or $365,281, during the fourth quarter of 2021. Similarly, while the portion of the Q4 figure that’s attributable to international collections isn’t identified, the entity in March said that it had paid out £26.3 million in international revenue during 2022’s initial quarter, following £94 million in international collections for all of 2021.)
PPL – which has partnered with companies including VEVA Sound in an effort to improve credits – also relayed that some 9,500 of the initially mentioned distribution recipients had “received supplementary remuneration” for recordings released between 1963 and 1970.
Commenting on the distribution in a statement, longtime PPL head Peter Leathem said: “It is fantastic to see out the year with such a positive result for PPL and the many performers and recording rightsholders who benefit from our work.
“We are able to pay more direct and indirect members than ever before because of the neighbouring rights and technology expertise we have across our business, which helps us to maximise the revenue coming in to and going out of PPL.
“Thank you to each and every member of staff at PPL, and also to our many industry partners for working to drive technological and operational improvements in our industry over the years,” he finished.
Earlier this week, PPL formally elevated nearly 14-year team member Dan Millington to SVP and head of client services and named Titania Altius (previously a PRS for Music consultant) head of member services.
In October, PRS revealed a “record-breaking” £211 million ($256.91 million) distribution, reflecting an approximately 18 percent YoY jump. And in the States, SoundExchange reported a $238.9 million distribution for Q3 2022 (down slightly from the third quarter of the prior year), but the entity has yet to unveil the specifics of its own Q4 2022 distribution.