APRA pays record $71.2 million to songwriter, composer & music publisher members
Monday, 30 May 2011
In its latest royalty distribution – for the half-year to 31 Dec 2010 – Australasian Performing Right Association (APRA) has distributed a record $71.2 million (up more than 7% on 2010) in public performance and broadcasting royalties to Australian, New Zealand and international songwriters, composers and music publishers.
APRA represents the rights of more than 67,000 Australasian songwriters, composers and music publishers, and by agreement with affiliated collecting societies, more than 2 million music creators worldwide.
Highlights:
- 57% of royalty payments went to Australian or NZ members (the balance to members of overseas collecting societies).
- More than 19,500 Australian or NZ writer members received a royalty payment – an increase of 6.25% on 2010.
- More than 489,000 discrete musical compositions received a royalty allocation, across 182,000 copyright owners globally, based on analysis of more than 4.2 million music performances.
Brett Cottle, Chief Executive Officer of APRA|AMCOS said: “in an increasingly challenging environment, it is heartening to see royalty distributions increasing for those who create the music.”
In noting that APRA would, commencing later this year, move from a half-yearly to a quarterly distribution cycle for its members, Cottle pointed to the difficulties associated with the explosion in electronic media.
“The advent of digital services and the dramatic increase in television services in recent years means that we are having to process vastly more performance data than ever before, and having to make many thousands of micro payments to members. Accordingly, while the aggregate sums being distributed continue to increase, individual returns to writers are in most cases declining.” Apart from Apple’s iTunes service, no other digital service had really gained traction, meaning that the financial returns to songwriters and publishers were still dominated by traditional media and performance outlets.
“The biggest barrier to earnings for music copyright owners remains free, illegal content on the web. It is well past time for ISPs in this country to take some responsibility in relation to illegal file-sharing.”
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