The UK Performing Rights Society for Music (PRS), which represents 65,000 songwriters, composers and music publishers, has today announced a 2.6% rise in annual revenues to £623m. Online revenues from legal licensed digital music services grew 72.7% to £30.4m. Wait, wasn’t illegal P2P file sharing by broadband ISP users supposed to be killing music? Hmm.Similarly back in January the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI) issued its Digital Music Report 2010, which revealed that global digital music trade revenues reached £2.6 billion (up 12%) in 2009 (here). IFPI still managed to blame piracy for a decline, despite the obvious contradiction.
Robert Ashcroft, Chief Executive of PRS for Music, said:
"In a tough trading year for all of us I’m pleased we were able to deliver a small increase in royalty revenues, allowing the nation’s music creators to keep creating music that is heard and appreciated around the world. This growth reflects in particular our increased efforts to license those benefiting from the use of British music overseas, our continued pursuit of legitimate alternatives to online piracy and, as always, the creative talent of our authors, composers and publishers.
2009 was the first year in which the growth in revenues from the legal digital market compensated for the decline in revenues from traditional CDs and DVDs, though we remain cautious as to whether this represents a true turning point. The next decade does however promise further growth in earnings from the legal digital market as well as the use of British music overseas."
"In a tough trading year for all of us I’m pleased we were able to deliver a small increase in royalty revenues, allowing the nation’s music creators to keep creating music that is heard and appreciated around the world. This growth reflects in particular our increased efforts to license those benefiting from the use of British music overseas, our continued pursuit of legitimate alternatives to online piracy and, as always, the creative talent of our authors, composers and publishers.
2009 was the first year in which the growth in revenues from the legal digital market compensated for the decline in revenues from traditional CDs and DVDs, though we remain cautious as to whether this represents a true turning point. The next decade does however promise further growth in earnings from the legal digital market as well as the use of British music overseas."
Unlike most other reports the PRS does at least manage to avoid making the same contradictions as IFPI and other rights holders have; often speaking of decline at the alleged behest of piracy while at the same time reporting growing revenues from digital downloads. Presenting the worst case scenario is obviously beneficial for them and helps when writing the government’s copyright policy, but it may not be an entirely accurate representation.
Tweet
Previous News Stories
2 September, 2010
1 September, 2010
28 August, 2010
26 August, 2010
1 September, 2010
12:10 PM - Top 9 Fastest UK Broadband ISPs Ranked by Speed for August 2010 - (0)
31 August, 201028 August, 2010
1:00 AM - YouTube UK Launch FREE Broadband Movie Streaming Service - (0)
27 August, 201026 August, 2010
7:19 AM - T-Mobile UK Slashes Pay Per Day Mobile Broadband Price - (0)
1:44 AM - UK ISP TalkTalk Launches 2010 Digital Heroes Awards - (0)
25 August, 201012:35 PM - UK ISP PlusNet CEO Departs and is Replaced by Jamie Ford - (2)
9:38 AM - Virgin Media UK Extends 2 MONTHS FREE Broadband Service Bundles - (0)
9:12 AM - WARNING New Phone SCAM Targeting UK Broadband ISP Customers - (1)
24 August, 201012:41 PM - Channel Five Rejoins UK Open Broadband TV Standard Project Canvas - (0)
9:01 AM - PCCW Backed UK Broadband Group Gives Hope to WiMAX Wireless - (7)
8:48 AM - BSkyB Mulling the Closure of Broadband ISP Sibling UK Online - (0)
Generated in 0.57049 seconds.
DB queries: 8
Copyright © 1999 to Present - ISPreview.co.uk - All Rights Reserved (Terms, Privacy Policy, Links (.), Live Chat & Website Rules).