New licensing deals with the likes of Google Play, Vevo and Microsoft Xbox have helped to boost UK revenues from online music services by more than 32% in 2012, overtaking royalties from the radio industry for the first time, according to new data.
An end-of-year report from UK royalties body PRS for Music shows that revenues from digital music services have now overtaken those earned from radio broadcasts as more online players enter the fold.
According to PRS for Music, which collects royalties for more than 95,000 songwriters and composers in the UK, British songwriters accrued £51.7m in royalties from digital music services in 2012. This makes online music the second-highest earner for these music-makers, accounting for 8pc of their total royalty income.
For the past five years, the average annual growth for online revenues has been 27%, but the 2012 figure represents a 32.2pc hike from 2011’s £38.5m. The significant growth has been attributed to new licensing agreements with growing services like Google Play, Xbox Music and Vevo, as well as the renewal of existing agreements.
Table: Royalty revenue collected by source
(Source: PRS for Music)
Royalties from broadcasters amount to 24% of all revenues for UK songwriters at £153m, but the majority of this is coming from TV (£106m) while radio is earning less than online music at £47m.
“Copyright remains fundamental to the continued success of our members both at home and abroad, while the ever-increasing importance of licensed online services, such as iTunes and Spotify, underlines the value of music to the internet economy,” commented Robert Ashcroft, chief executive of PRS for Music.
At least one digital music service is in decline, though. Royalties from ringtones, which once raked in £5.7m back in 2008, have dropped to £900,000, joining the ranks of plummeting royalties, like those from DVD sales.
Source: PRS
