UK-based music rights management organizations PRS for Music and PPL have partnered with music technology startup Audoo on public performance royalty distributions.
The collaboration seeks to enhance the distribution of music royalties to more than 300,000 artists, composers, writers, music publishers, and recording rightsholders.
By integrating Audoo’s Audoo Audio Meters in establishments such as cafés, bars, restaurants, hair salons, and retail outlets across Great Britain, the partnership seeks to accelerate the allocation of royalties to music creators.
The Audoo Audio Meter, compliant with GDPR regulations, employs what it describes as “smart plug-in technology” to monitor and report played music in near real-time, all while excluding non-music audio such as conversations.
This technology identifies the background music being played publicly and reports this usage data back to relevant music rights management organizations, such as PRS for Music and PPL.
“We are continually investing in new technologies and services to ensure we can pay out royalties more quickly and accurately, delivering the best possible service to members,” said Tim Arber, PRS for Music’s Director of Operational Improvement.
PRS for Music and PPL both manage and distribute royalties to music creators, artists, and rights holders.
“This initiative with Audoo will complement our existing suite of advanced technological tools and public performance music usage data, offering us a further way to check that our distributions are as accurate as possible.”
Russell Chant, PPL
PRS for Music’s main focus is on collecting and distributing royalties for the public performance and communication of musical works. This includes when music is performed live, broadcast on television and radio, played in public spaces, and streamed online.
Meanwhile, PPL’s primary role is to collect and distribute royalties for the use of recorded music. PPL primarily represents recording artists and record labels. It collects royalties when recorded music is played in public places, broadcast on the radio, or used in other public performances.
PPL also manages neighboring rights, which are related to the rights of performers and record labels in relation to the use of their recordings. Similar to PRS for Music, PPL licenses music users and venues, collects fees, and distributes royalties to the performers and rights holders of the recorded music.
“This collaboration with PRS and PPL is a milestone in the evolution of the public performance royalty space, for creators, performers and rights holders, as well as licensees delivering an enhanced experience for customers through the joy of music played in public spaces.”
Ryan Edwards, Audoo
“We have been working with music recognition technology for many years and are excited to see how this collaboration with Audoo can support our ambition to pay out over £1 billion annually in the next few years. Helping businesses across the UK to report the music they play through smart data capture will be integral to reaching this milestone and maximizing our members’ public performance royalties,” Arber added.
Earlier this year, PPL and PRS for Music’s joint venture, PPL PRS, revealed that it distributed more than GBP £1 billion (USD $1.27 billion) to music creators and rightsholders in the five years since its launch in 2018.
In 2022, PPL said it paid artists and other rights holders £244.9 million ($311m) of international revenues, while annual revenues at PRS for Music topped £964 million ($1.2m).
“At PPL, we’re always working to ensure that performers, record labels and self-releasing artists are fairly and accurately paid for the music they create. This initiative with Audoo will complement our existing suite of advanced technological tools and public performance music usage data, offering us a further way to check that our distributions are as accurate as possible. We look forward to working with the Audoo team over the coming months,” said Russell Chant, PPL’s Head of Distribution.
Ryan Edwards, Audoo’s founder and CEO, added: “This collaboration with PRS and PPL is a milestone in the evolution of the public performance royalty space, for creators, performers and rights holders, as well as licensees delivering an enhanced experience for customers through the joy of music played in public spaces. Audoo is a proud British business that has designed, developed and continues to manufacture all products in the UK, so it is particularly poignant to launch Audoo at home with global leaders PRS for Music and PPL following the successful impact in other territories.”
Music Business Worldwide