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PRS collections in 2022 up 18.9% on pre-pandemic income
By Chris Cooke | Published on Tuesday 25 April 2023
UK song rights collecting society PRS For Music collected a record £964 million in royalties last year, up 22.9% year-on-year. And while some of that growth was part of the post-COVID revival, 2022 collections were 18.9% up on 2019. In terms of pay outs to songwriters and music publishers, those were up 23.5% to £836.2 million.
“In 2021, PRS For Music set out its vision to pay out over £1 billion in royalties within the next five years”, says PRS boss Andrea Czapary Martin, “last year we accelerated progress towards, and beyond, this milestone”.
“Through our ambitious licensing strategy and utilising our joint ventures we have maximised the value of members works at every opportunity”, she adds. “While our investment in new technologies and services means we can pay out royalties more quickly and accurately, delivering the best possible service to members at a market leading low cost-to-income ratio”.
Because for songwriters and publishers, live music and the broadcast and public performance of recorded music are key revenue streams, the pandemic had a much bigger impact on the songs side of the music rights business than it did on the record industry.
Live music, of course, was shut down entirely for a time by the COVID lockdowns, while broadcasters saw their ad revenues dip, and the pubs, clubs, bars and cafes that usually play recorded music were not open.
As a result, says PRS in its latest financial round-up, “the big story of 2022 was the strength of the rebound in live music”. Shows in the UK “generated £62.7 million of royalties, an increase of 683% compared to 2021 and 16.1% on 2019. Over 128,000 live events were reported to PRS For Music across the year in the UK, including major tours from the likes of Dua Lipa, Ed Sheeran, Little Mix, N-Dubz, The Cure and The Rolling Stones, among others”.
Public performance at large – including live music and the public performance of recorded music – was up 66.4% year-on-year to £228.9 million, or 3% higher than pre-pandemic levels back in 2019. Meanwhile, commercial radio royalties were up 2.6% to £52.2 million.
That’s the money PRS collects in the UK on behalf of its own members and the members of other collecting societies around the world with which it has reciprocal deals. Further live, broadcast and public performance revenue is also collected in other markets for British songwriters and publishers via those foreign societies, which gets reported by PRS as international income.
“International revenues showed strong signs of recovery following the global pandemic”, PRS declares, “totalling £272.4 million in 2022, a year-on-year increase of 8.8%”. However, “2022 sees overall overseas royalty income remain below pre-pandemic levels, 2.3% lower than 2019”. That said, delays in monies moving around the network of global societies means that international income in 2022 was still being affected by the COVID restrictions of 2021 and maybe even 2020.
A chunk of streaming money also flows through the collective licensing system on the songs side, though in the digital domain things get complicated. For starters, PRS issues licences beyond the UK when it comes to streaming, though not in every market. Many music publishers also have direct deals in many markets, though basically in partnership with PRS. Plus some streaming money is allocated to the mechanical rights in songs and not captured in PRS figures.
But, with all those complexities acknowledged, PRS reports that “music streaming continues to be the most popular way for fans to access music, contributing £284.3 million to overall online royalties of £334 million, up by 25% on 2021”.
Then there’s the video streaming services that use music. “This year, PRS For Music concluded new agreements with Apple TV+ and Amazon for its Freevee service”, the society adds. “The increase of revenues from video-on-demand platforms by 16.5% contributed £40.2m to online royalties compared to the previous year”.
So, there you go. And if you’re interested in membership stats, “PRS welcomed almost 7000 new writer, composer and publisher members in 2022”, the PRS figures reveal. Welcome one and all!
