Predictions
Performance rights lift recorded music revenues
Let the music play ... and the money roll in
Performance rights are the industry’s biggest growth engine. Music is everywhere. But its ubiquity is arguably under-monetized. Collectively we listen to broadcast music trillions of times a year, on the car radio, in the hairdresser and elsewhere: yet in 2014 the global collective license fee for all of this played music will likely still be less than $3 million per day. Although performance rights revenues might appear modest, they largely flow directly to the bottom line: collection in most countries is handled by collection societies, whose costs are deducted from fees collected.
Executive summary
To maximize revenues from performance rights – and to deliver growth to the sector – the music industry should consider the following:
- Emphasize the ability of good quality recorded music to make a business more appealing: this should help avoid the perception that license payments are a form of tax.
- Raise awareness of the need to pay a license, and facilitate self-service payment and renewal.
- Ensure that collection of license money is performed in the most efficient way both within and potentially across countries. This could include joint collection ventures with the publishing collection societies and related outsource deals.
The music industry needs to price its assets cleverly to allow licensees to grow while maximizing its regulatory right to the revenue.
Performance rights lift recorded music revenues