The recorded music licensing landscape has changed considerably since 1934 when the performers’ rights organisation PPL was founded, and copyright law is constantly evolving, as Peter Leathem reports.
PPL is 80 this year. As we proudly reach this milestone, we are now working on behalf of more than 75,000 record company and performer members to provide collective licensing of recorded music when it is played in public or broadcast (including online) in the UK.
We license more than 300,000 businesses and broadcasters, to use more than six million recordings. We are continuing to increase the income we generate for our members, distributing nearly £150 million to them in 2013—the largest payment, to the largest number of record companies and performers, in PPL’s history.
At the same time, we are seeing positive developments in the UK music industry, which is continuing to embrace the digital market, add value to UK plc and explore ways of further innovating and simplifying licensing. Despite this, the copyright framework on which our industry, and the wider creative sector, depends is under review both here and in Europe, particularly in the digital context.
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copyright, licensing, PPL, performers' rights
