Milking The Revenues

The same day PPL announced license fee income for 2007 had risen from £97.5 million to £115 million, the Financial Times detailed just how far the European broadcast collecting societies are prepared to go to increase their revenues.

SENA, the Dutch society, reportedly collects money from a dairy that got newspaper coverage for claiming that research indicates cows produce more milk while listening to music.

SENA receives cheques from the mail-sorting office at Amsterdam’s Schipol Airport, which employs DJs to motivate staff. Also paying up is the Rotterdam underground network, which plays classical music to deter loitering youths.

U.K.-based PPL, which licenses sound recordings on behalf of record companies and performers, isn’t saying how much of the distributable net revenue of £99.5 million (up 18 percent on 2006) came from postal sorting offices, tube stations and cowsheds. But chairman and chief exec Fran Nevrkla did tell the FT that he’s set a target of doubling the number of U.K. businesses covered by public performance licenses within five years.

The PPL’s international income for 2007 reached £9.1 million, a 52 percent growth on the previous year. Public performance and "dubbing revenues" came in at £49 million, an 11 percent growth over 2006.

Broadcast revenue grew by 20 percent to £56.8 million, reflecting an increasing number of music users in the broadcast media, a wider scope of rights licensed by PPL and the re-negotiation of license arrangements with a number of existing major customers, including the BBC.