70 YEARS OF PPL
70thCover.indd 1-2
29/4/04 5:36:59 pm
Contents
5
70 Years of PPL
7
The Test Case
9
Time Capsule
13
The Early Days
16
Rock ’n’ Roll Copyright is Here to Stay
19
Tuned for Royalties
24
50 Not Out
27
Onwards and Upwards
33
And so to 2034
37
Fran Nevrkla
38
Timeline
40
Top 70 at 70
46
PPL Chairmen
Words: Paul Sexton
Design: jmenternational.com
70 Years of PPL
Records, performers and PPL have been
together now for three score years and ten, and
it doesn’t seem a day too long. Phonographic
Performance Ltd is celebrating its birthday by
striding ahead into the 21st century with an
energetic confidence that ensures it’ll blow out
those 70 candles with one puff.
By way of a quick précis, PPL in 2004
represents more than 3,000 record companies
and 30,000 performers – licensing their
repertoire for broadcast and public performance
purposes. The organisation collects and
distributes revenues on behalf of its record
company members and performers from every
sound carrier and set of speakers you can
imagine, the length and breadth of Britain.
This volume hopes to illustrate the story of PPL’s
journey from humble beginnings in Wigmore
Street, W1, through wartime, legislative
evolution, the dawn of rock ’n’ roll and beyond,
into a £80 million-a-year concern fighting the
good fight for music-makers everywhere.
Application for Licence, 1943
5
Café on Baldwin St, Bristol
The Test Case
PPL was formed by EMI and Decca, becoming
an incorporated company in May 1934 after a
crucial test case brought by a record company
against a coffee shop.
It was the Copyright Act of 1911 that first
gave protection to records and other sound
recordings (let’s not forget, for instance,
perforated piano rolls). That act gave the
composer the additional right of controlling
reproductions of his work by any mechanical
means. But it was a successful copyright
claim by the Gramophone Company, soon to
be better known as EMI, that mixed the very
concrete with which PPL was built.
The case was brought against Stephen
Carwardine & Co, restaurant proprietors of
Bristol, asking for an injunction to restrain
them from infringing the copyright of the 1931
recording ‘Overture, The Black Domino’, written
by the French composer Auber and played
by the London Symphony Orchestra. “On the
afternoon of February 20, 1933,” the Times
reported solemnly, “the defendants played the
record in their tea and coffee rooms, Baldwin
Street, Bristol, without the plaintiffs’ consent,
and that was the infringement complained of.”
Mr. Justice Maugham found in favour of Sir
Stafford Cripps, representing the plaintiffs,
thus setting in stone the principle that the
owners of sound recordings should henceforth
be paid for the broadcasting and public
performance of their copyrights.
7
Edward Elgar
at Abbey Road
Time Capsule
May 1934
EMI was already a venerable institution,
founded as the Gramophone Company in
1897, although it had been as recently as
1931 that the EMI name was created, after a
merger with Columbia formed an organisation
that accounted for half of all British record
sales in the 1930s. It was in 1931, too, that
Sir Edward Elgar opened the EMI Recording
Studios in a London street that now has the
world’s most famous zebra crossing outside, in
Abbey Road, NW8.
Decca Records was a younger pup, formed in
1929 and propelled at the point of PPL’s launch
by the success of British bandleaders such as
Jack Hylton and Ambrose. This was a time when
Tin Pan Alley was thriving, a world of music
publishing in which songsmiths and lyricists
were the industry’s prized craftspeople, and
eyecatchingly-presented sheet music sold in
huge numbers to performers and public alike.
America’s Tin Pan Alley was a name for W.28th
Street, the area between Broadway and Sixth
Avenue where many publishing companies had
their offices. The British equivalent, of course,
was London’s famous Denmark Street, the
‘Street of Song,’ an address that was to develop
close ties with the inaugural headquarters of
Phonographic Performance Ltd, half a mile down
the road at 144 Wigmore Street.
9
Time Capsule continued
But in those days between the wars, Britain
was not only a generation away from its own
pop sales charts, it didn’t yet even have
published sheet music sales as an index
of song popularity. The more sophisticated
dancehalls across the land were taking
‘Cocktails For Two’, the Duke Ellington number
from Paramount’s mystery-suspense movie of
the day, ‘Murder At The Vanities’.
‘Cocktails’ was America’s most popular
recording for five weeks (taking over from
Bing Crosby’s ‘Little Dutch Mill’) and Ellington
appeared in the picture alongside such stars
of the early talkies as Kitty Carlisle and Victor
McLaglen. The film had the additional notoriety
of a song called ‘Marijuana’, sung by Gertrude
Michael (and you thought drug songs started
in the 1960s).
The big new British picture on PPL’s birthday
was ‘Princess Charming’, which opened in the
UK on April 25, 1934 and starred Evelyn Laye
and George Grossmith, with an appearance
by our stand-up superstar of the era, ‘Cheeky
Chappy’ Max Miller, as a character called
‘Chuff’. Meanwhile, the Oscar-winning Best
Picture of 1934 was ‘It Happened One Night’,
and THE Broadway musical of the year and the
decade was Cole Porter’s ‘Anything Goes’.
10
In the wider world of May 1934, visionary
British author H.G.Wells was, chillingly,
predicting another major war by 1940, as
the USSR extended its non-aggression pact
with Poland until 1945. The first drive-in
movie theatre (sorry, theater) opened in New
Jersey in ’34, and the law finally got the better
of Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow, whose
four-year reign of crime ended when they were
killed in a police ambush in Louisiana. In their
car, Texas Rangers found a saxophone and a
half-eaten sandwich.
PPL shares its birthday in May 1934 with
some other Great British institutions: our
erstwhile heavyweight boxing champion Henry
Cooper (’appy birthday Enery), distinguished
actresses Siân Phillips and Nanette Newman,
and writer, actor and wit Alan Bennett. Not to
mention a man whose electronic pioneering
would help to define some of the sonic
texture of a future era presided over by PPL,
synthesiser frontiersman Robert Moog.
“ Three score years and ten is a very long
time in the short term world of the record
industry. PPL’s history is a remarkable one.
Yet we’ve witnessed a no less remarkable
transformation of the company in recent
years. When I was working for A&M
Records in the early 1970s I remember
joining the PPL Board as a representative
of the smaller independent companies
and wondering how this organisation so
steeped in tradition could represent a
seemingly radically-minded business.
Yet many of my older fellow board
members had the foresight, some 40
years before, to take the test case against
the Carwardine Tea Company that had
resulted in such enormous benefits to
the modern industry. During my time at
the BPI in the 1980s and 1990s I came
to realise how increasingly important PPL
had become to the industry–not only in
delivering bottom-line profits to record
companies when conventional record
sales were flagging, but also in protecting
their valuable rights.
But the secret of eternal youth is the
ability to change. It’s to PPL’s credit
that under Fran Nevrkla’s leadership, its
relationship with the British performers’
community–so long based on cool
detachment–has blossomed. With
the mounting pressures on the record
business from all directions, the ability to
speak with one voice is a vital component
in ensuring we reach the next 70 years.”
John Deacon, Director General of the BPI, 1979-2000
The Early Days
After that test case of 1934, the fledgling PPL
set about spreading the word of its existence,
explaining the very whys and wherefores that
brought it into being.
Originally, PPL gave 80% of its net distributable
income to its members and 20% to featured
artists. Inaugural secretary J.P. Carrigan wrote
from his Wigmore Street office to recordspinners everywhere about the organisation,
to inquire politely whether they required a
performance licence. “We think you will be
interested to know,” he told the Town Clerk of
Keighley in Yorkshire in a letter in December
1935, “that the combined repertories of our
members comprise more than 100,000 different
records...and about 300 new records are
published every month.”
By then, PPL had already issued a large number
of licences “to municipal authorities in all parts
of the British Isles.” Applicants were assured
that the annual fee was always commensurate
with the circumstances in which records were
played. Wherever recorded music was heard in
the leisure environments of the mid-’30s, be
it park or pleasure garden, speedway tracks
or swimming baths, the industry was taking
confident steps to the proper recognition of
performers rotating at 78rpm.
By 1939, as world war loomed, public meeting
places such as the Glasgow Casino cinema
would pay an annual fee of four guineas (£4.20)
for the right to play records on the premises.
A total of 37 labels, or ‘marks’ as the licence
described them, were now represented by PPL,
including not just time-honoured names such
as Columbia, Decca, His Masters Voice and
Polydor but others with such resplendent titles
as Bosworth, Crystalate and Sterno.
Radio, of course, was THE medium of the
day, with UK audiences in the multi-millions.
The irony was that the very phenomenon that
could bring recorded music to such massive
audiences in the comfort of their homes
was also one of the reasons for the serious
downturn in the phonograph industry. Amid the
global economic depression that gripped the
1930s, the fledgling PPL was collecting income
for labels and musicians from broadcast
usage, but sales of the records themselves
were in decline.
During the war, under the general management
of H.M. Lemoine, the organisation was forced to
leave bomb-torn London for temporary offices
at the Willows in Wargraves, Berkshire. But by
the time World War II ended, PPL was happily
back in its original premises in Wigmore Street.
J.P. Carrigan Letter
13
The Early Days continued
PPL now had an international dimension,
proclaiming its affiliation to the International
Federation of the Phonographic Industry. In
the mid 1940s the record industry took the
view that performers’ contributions should be
recognised through greater participation in PPL
income. This intelligent and far-sighted decision
was particularly remarkable because of its
voluntarily nature, bearing in mind that there
was no legislative or other external pressure on
PPL at the time. From 1946, ex gratia payments
were made from PPL’s net distributable income
of 12.5% to the Musicians Union, and of 20%
to featured performers contracted to European
members (not, for example, artists contracted
to US record companies).
At the close of the 1940s, the society marked
the end of its first complete decade with
gross revenue for the ten-year period of little
short of a million pounds. It was a remarkable
figure in a decade so blighted by war—but just
around the corner was a musical revolution
and another seismic shift in copyright law that
would shape the years ahead.
15
Rock ’n’ Roll Copyright is Here to Stay
In 1950, PPL reported gross revenue for the
year of £132,000. By the end of the ’50s,
income had almost doubled to £254,000.
The two major reasons for that increase both
arrived in the middle of the decade. Their
names were the Copyright Act 1956, and
rock ’n’ roll.
Following an examination in 1952 of the UK’s
copyright legislation in the Gregory Report,
the copyright bill that became law four years
later would give the record industry its most
concrete legal protection in its history. It
contained express provisions about the uses of
a sound recording that were protected by the
copyright in that recorded work.
Another momentous part of the 1956 Act
concerned the introduction of the Performing
Right Tribunal. For the first time, licensees
were allowed to challenge the licence terms
of collecting societies, and the jurisdiction of
the Tribunal included licences for the public
performance or broadcasting of sound recordings.
The revolution in recorded sound played a big
part in PPL’s ’50s development too. In fact,
make that 45 revolutions, per minute. The 78
was on the way out and the glory days of the
seven-inch single were upon us, resulting in
a huge boom in the popularity among young
record-buyers of a device that had actually
been around since the late 1920s. The
Automatic Coin-Operated Phonograph, as it
was first known. The jukebox, to you and me.
16
With Columbia releasing the first records on
the RCA seven-inch 45 rpm format in 1951, the
very same year saw the first jukebox marketed
that was able to play the new format. Wurlitzer
had introduced multiple-selection jukeboxes
in the very year of PPL’s creation, 1934, and
indeed many collectors consider that the
golden age of these magical machines was
from the late ’30s to the late ’40s.
But now the difference was that teenagers had
music to call their own, and their own places
in which to listen to it en masse. As the world
began to realise that rock ’n’ roll really was here
to stay, the jukebox transported its glorious
sound into thousands of coffee bars and clubs
the length of Britain.
In October 1960, the Performing Right Tribunal
rejected an argument by Barrington Electronics
Ltd that the public performance licence fees for
jukeboxes should be nominal, confirming that
a licensee couldn’t argue that the operators
had an implied licence to play records having
already purchased them. It also noted that
PPL’s tariff had been freely agreed by the
great majority of the other operators. It was a
demonstration of the role that jukebox ‘airplay’
took at the time in generating substantial
income for PPL members.
“ PPL, and more recently VPL, have represented
artists, musicians and record producers for
the last 70 years with the maximum amount
of energy, effectiveness and commitment to
the music industry, and with the minimum
amount of fuss and bother. Their role today
during these exciting times of change is more
vital than ever, and I wish them every success
for the next 70 years.”
Tim Bowen, Chairman BMG, UK & Ireland
Tony Blackburn
at Radio 1 in 1967
Tuned for Royalties
If rock ’n’ roll was the password for PPL’s 1950s
expansion, then it was the evolution of radio in
the 1960s and the 1970s that would do much to
fashion the collection society we know today—but
not without plenty of angst along the way.
On June 30, 1967, the Postmaster General,
Edward Short, announced in Parliament
that the BBC would open a new frequency
in three months’ time: Radio 1, established
to broadcast “continuous pop music from
7am to 7.30pm, followed by light music and
entertainment until 2am.” In mid-August, the
Marine Offences Act became law, outlawing
pirate stations. It was the end of one era, but it
built the path for the wall-to-wall music radio,
in analogue, digital and internet forms, that we
know today. Indeed, in 2003 over half of PPL’s
income was generated by broadcasting.
For many years, PPL’s war chest of royalties for
its members was restricted at radio by what
became known as ‘needle time.’ This was the
limit, set by the Musicians’ Union at seven
hours for the new Radio 1 and 2, for the total
daily duration of sound recordings allowed on
the networks.
Says John Smith, General Secretary,
Musicians’ Union, “Many musicians look back
with some affection on the time when limits
were imposed on broadcasters with regard
to the amount of air time that they could
broadcast gramophone records. PPL, with the
active encouragement of the MU, was able to
exercise a degree of control over the extent of
the use of commercial records in broadcasting
and for other ‘public use’. Licence control
conditions, or ‘needle time’, was valued
by performers as a protection against the
destruction of employment opportunities
which could result in, what was perceived as,
an over use of commercial recordings. This
protection was accepted as being reasonable
by the Performing Right (later Copyright)
Tribunal, PPL and even the BBC. It was also
supported by Government Ministers. In fact,
the need to restrain the extent of the use of
commercial recordings was openly expressed
by Christopher Chattaway when he was the
Minister who oversaw the introduction of
commercial radio.
The restriction was removed partly as
a result of the Statutory Licence in the
1990 Broadcasting Act, and partly as
a result of the Monopolies and Mergers
Commission investigation into PPL in
1988. As a consequence musicians’
employment opportunities in broadcasting
decreased enormously.”
19
Tuned for Royalties continued
“ PPL’s continued strong
representation on behalf of
performers and producers alike
reinforces the message that
musical intellectual property is
of great value, in a multitude of
different situations.”
Tony Wadsworth, Chairman & CEO,
EMI Music UK & Ireland
Following the advent of commercial radio in
1973 and in its early years there was a great
deal of tension and distrust between PPL and
the broadcasters. The Broadcasting Act 1990
introduced a statutory licence for the use of
sound recordings in broadcasts and cable
programme service which meant that radio
stations were able to declare the fee they were
prepared to pay by invoking a statutory licence.
The broadcasters wanted very low royalty rates
whilst the record industry felt fully justified in
expecting the substantial increase of music
usage on radio being reflected in the payments.
In spite of this polarisation, both sides came
very close to an agreed settlement through a
negotiation which regrettably failed in its last
stage. After hearings that lasted several weeks,
the Copyright Tribunal in February 1993 finally
determined industry-wide rates.
Paul Brown, Chief Executive of the Commercial
Radio Companies Association (the trade body
for commercial radio) acknowledges that this
bruising experience was not easy but says the
benefits have been profound. He adds, “The
current relationships are constructive and
helpful, and so they should be – commercial
music radio needs a thriving popular music
industry in the UK and values the rights it buys
from PPL and of course, from other licensors.
What was once a battle ground is now a field of
shared endeavour.”
Tuned for Royalties continued
PPL’s Chairman and CEO, Fran Nevrkla
observes that the current climate developed in
recent years between the radio broadcasting
industry and PPL is considerably calmer and
contains the right blend of pragmatism, mutual
respect and willingness to listen. He also
comments, “When you get two sides who love
and passionately believe in what they do, it is
inevitable perhaps that objectivity may suffer
at least occasionally. The record industry must
be ready to acknowledge that on a world scale
British broadcasting remains in a class of it s
own in terms of the extraordinarily high standards
which it maintains. It is also incumbent upon
PPL to make fresh efforts to become better
acquainted with the broadcasters’ business to
gain a better understanding and appreciation
of their own problems and concerns. On the
broadcasting side, perhaps there should be a
less reluctant acceptance of the fact that the
record industry provides the very building blocks
on which successful music radio is built and can
thrive as a prosperous business. It is essential for
the record labels and the performers to get paid
for their music at a fair commercial rate.”
“ The BBC congratulates PPL on
its 70th birthday. Collective
licensing of music rights is of
fundamental importance in
a digital multi-media world
and the BBC looks forward
to continuing its long and
successful partnership with
PPL into the future.”
James Lancaster,
Head of Contributor and Talent Rights, BBC
£ 592.1
50 Not Out
Martin Mills, Chairman, the Beggars Group
The ’80s would also witness PPL’s biggest-ever
decade by decade percentage increase in gross
revenue. Its 1960-69 total of £4,803,000 had
already taken a huge 297% leap to just over
£19 million for the 1970s, but that was to soar
again fivefold, by 522%, in the 1980s to a total
of over £118 million.
3.5
3.0
400
2.5
300
2.0
£ 226.9
200
1.5
BETTER THAN RPI
In the mid-’80s, PPL also produced statistical
research that showed how dramatically the
importance of performance income had
heightened in just over ten years. In 1975, the
ratio of profits on conventional recorded music
sales compared to usage revenue was 16:1. By
1986, it was just 2:1.
500
REVENUE GROWTH %
In 1984, as PPL celebrated its 50th birthday,
then Chairman Ramon Lopez was writing about
the all time historical total of £63 million
distributed to member companies, musicians
and performers, pointing out proudly that
more than half that total, £38 million, had
been collected in the previous five years. He
was writing in the sleeve notes of a speciallyproduced seven-inch disc featuring some
of the most-reproduced recordings of the
organisation’s first five decades, from ‘We’re
Tops On Saturday Night’ by Ambrose and his
Orchestra to ‘Cum On Feel The Noize’ by Slade.
REVENUE £M
“ Independent labels large and small cannot live
without the collective strength and administration
that PPL offers in the licensing of our rights. It’s
inconceivable that even a label like Beggars
could manage the licensing of so many individual
uses itself, [as indeed would users be] unable to
deal with anything other than a handful of labels
to access their repertoire needs, without the
collective solution. As performance type revenue
streams become more and more central to our
businesses, we need PPL more than ever. We
welcome, and are happy to be part of, its growth
and development in the modern age.”
4.0
1.0
100
£ 55.9
0
£ 0.6
£ 1.3
£ 2.6
£ 8.0
0.5
0.0
1934-43 1944-53 1954-63 1964-73 1974-83 1984-93 1994-03
PPL Revenue Growth Versus RPI
24
25
Onwards and Upwards
During the 1990s, the radio industry grew
even stronger with the number of national
commercial stations increasing and there was an
unprecendented growth in the amount of music
being played. This increased further with the
launch of digital radio.
PPL had been further strengthened when the
Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 came
into force the following year. Numerous changes
were made to the secondary infringement
provisions, while the Performing Right Tribunal
was renamed the Copyright Tribunal and given
wider jurisdiction.
Another vastly significant piece of legislation
was to arrive in the form of the Council Directive
92/100/EEC 19 November 1992 on Rental Right
and Lending Right and on Certain Rights related
to Copyright in the Field of Intellectual Property
commonly referred to as the Rental Directive.
27
Front row (left to right)
John Patrick, Vice Chair, PAMRA
Fran Nevrkla, Chairman & CEO, PPL/VPL
Sabine Schlag, Executive Director, PAMRA
John Smith, General Secretary, Musicians’ Union
Nigel Parker, Legal Counsel, AURA
Back row (left to right)
Clive Bishop, Director of Operations, PPL
Glen Barnham, BBC Co-Ordinator, Equity
Robin Millar, Honorary Patron, Music Producers Guild
Dominic McGonigal, Director of Strategy
& Business Development, PPL
Peter Thoms, Media Session Officer, Musicians’ Union
Stephen King, Chairman, AURA
Steve Macchia, Head of Performer Services, PPL
Onwards and Upwards continued
This European Directive gave each individual
performer a legal right to be equitably remunerated
from the communication of their performances to the
public. The Rental Directive was implemented into UK
law on 1 December 1996 and required the copyright
owner (the record company) to share any money it
collected from the broadcast or public performance of
sound recordings with the relevant performers. Prior
to this date, UK featured performers had been paid
on an ex gratia or voluntary basis by PPL and since
1946, PPL also voluntarily paid the MU in respect of
non featured musicians. When considering this new
legislation, and after lengthy deliberations, the PPL
Board agreed that the performers should benefit by
receiving 50% of all ‘qualifying’ income on a track
by track basis. This was a voluntary decision as
legislators declined to recommend any particular split
of PPL income. This meant that every single performer,
whether featured or non featured would have to
register their details with PPL or one of the newly
formed UK performer organisations to enable their
royalties to be forwarded to them.
Fran Nevrkla, formerly Director of Commercial and
Business Affairs at Warner Music U.K., was appointed
PPL Chairman and CEO in October 2000.
28
PPL, by now had moved from its well known home in
Ganton House to its current offices in Upper James
Street in London’s West End and marked the end of the
1990s with another huge hike in revenues, up 262% for
the decade to £430 million.
April 2001 saw the formation of the Performer Forum
which was a revolutionary move to bring together the
Association of United Recording Artists (AURA), the
British Actors’ Equity, the Music Producers’ Guild (MPG),
the Musicians’ Union (MU), the Performing Artists Media
Rights Association (PAMRA) and PPL for the first time.
In January 2003, two performer representatives were
invited to attend PPL Board meetings to represent the
British performing community; this was increased to a
third representative in January 2004. British performers
now also have representatives on PPL’s Distribution and
International committees.
Distribution was further improved and made more
accurate as PPL investigated new ways to obtain better
information, this was done through the Distribution
Committee which was re-formed in 2001.
“ As well as working closely with PPL
on the Performer Forum, dealing
with the performers’ public
performance and broadcast right,
the MU co-operates with PPL on all
music industry issues. The MU was
pleased to be able to assist PPL
in its campaign over Sections 67
and 72 of the CDPA, and has been
grateful for the support shown by PPL
in MU campaigns on the Licensing
Act, and arts funding issues.
Congratulations to PPL on reaching
its 70th year – long may the close
relationship between our two
organisations continue.”
John F Smith, General Secretary, Musicians’ Union
“ The relationship between the
performer organisations and PPL is
now very important. I can remember
a time when there was no contact
and I am glad to say that is in the
past. We all have mutual interests
in ensuring that income both for
the companies and the performers
is maximised. With the Performer
Forum we have all come together
as a united front for performers and
there is a positive attitude with PPL
as the ‘engine room’ for overseas
collections. The future role for PPL in
its 70th year is vital and relevant for
all the music business.”
Glen Barnham, BBC Co-ordinator, Equity
“ I have only been with PAMRA since
December 2002 but the progress and
level of cooperation that has been
achieved between our organisations
in the last 14 months is considerable.
The success of better collaboration
is already tangible as the following
figures show: Payment to performers
in 2003 is 5 times greater than the
first payment in 1999. Time taken to
pay the performers’ money in 2003
has halved since the first distribution
in 1999.”
Sabine Schlag, Executive Director of PAMRA
Onwards and Upwards continued
2002 saw the official launch of CatCo, the
record industry’s sound recording electronic
database holding details of product releases,
label ownership, artist and performer details
and ISRC codes. CatCo allows member
record companies to submit new release data
electronically and now holds details of over
7 million tracks. The ‘one stop drop’ for sound
recording data also supplies data to MCPS for
mechanical licensing and IFPI and BPI for
anti-piracy purposes.
Early in 2003, PPL raised the profile of its
work with the launch of the Royalties Reunited
campaign. Since the introduction of the
Rental Directive, over 25,000 musicians were
either registered with PPL or members of
performers’ organisations AURA or PAMRA and
were already getting their due royalties. There
were still however some performers who had
failed to register which meant that payments
couldn’t be forwarded to them. A dedicated
website, www.royaltiesreunited.co.uk, was set
up in conjunction with AURA, Equity, MPG, the
Musicians’ Union and PAMRA, in a concerted
effort to contact some 5,000 musicians – from
well-known stars to obscure session players,
due tidy windfalls from the public performance
of their recordings.
30
“ We at Ace think that PPL is wonderful
because they pay us lots of money!
Seriously though, Fran and his
dedicated team are doing a wonderful
job in modernising the whole process at
PPL. The creation of CatCo is something
of inestimable value, which will make
the commerce of online music much
easier to manage. Can I just say how
good it is to be able to ring up out of
the blue and speak to people who really
understand what they are doing.”
Ted Carroll, ACE Records LTD
“ All too often the musician can end up at
the bottom of the ladder – without the
musician there’s no music. It’s great that
musicians are being chased to be given
this money that they’re owed.”
Duncan Mackay, trumpet player for Primal Scream, Richard
Ashcroft and Bootsy Collins amongst many others.
“ Performers are taking a renewed
interest in PPL since Fran Nevrkla
joined and started bringing the costs
of the organisation under control. His
‘can do’ attitude is a breath of fresh
air in the industry.”
Dave Rowntree, Blur
“ Every musician must be grateful to
PPL not only for the very high mission
that they are carrying on but also
for the technical and managerial
perfection of the service and the great
support that they give to performers.”
Claudio Scimone,
Conductor and Artistic Director, I Solisti Veneti
Further changes to copyright law were made
when the 1988 Act was amended by the
Copyright and Related Rights Regulations 2003.
These regulations implemented the
EU Copyright Directive and also partially
corrected some previous changes required by
the earlier Rental Directive. It also swept away
the old definition of cable programme service
by expanding the definition of a broadcast
and introducing a new right of communication
to the public. The amendments introduced
gave PPL the right to collect licence fees from
certain venues which publicly perform sound
recordings via radio or TV, thus closing the
gap between the rights of record producers
and performers and the rights enjoyed by the
publishing world and the rest of Europe.
Says Fran Nevrkla, “These fundamental
legislative changes were partly the result of
PPL’s intensive lobbying efforts in recent years,
especially since October 2000. Joint efforts with
the performer community and the independent
record business sector together with some
rock solid support from the music publishers’
organisations, led by John Hutchinson, finally
bore fruit.” Nevrkla adds that he regards this
process as an early example of what can be
achieved through unity and collaboration.
31
And so to 2034
“ PPL has played a vital role
in the development of the
UK music business. It has
successfully managed to improve
its traditional collections and
distributions while looking to the
future landscape for additional
revenues. PPL’s commitment to
the creation and management
of new revenue streams in the
online environment will be a key
component in ensuring a healthy
future. Congratulations to Fran
and his team.”
Jay Berman, Chairman of IFPI
PPL’s gross revenue for 2003, distributed
to a membership that has now soared to
3,000, stood at almost £81 million with the
proliferation of recorded music reaching us
from almost every shop, café and high street
store. Since the implementation of the Rental
Directive in 1996, over 30,000 performers
have registered their details to ensure payment
if their tracks are aired.
Fran Nevrkla views the mid- and long-term
challenges facing PPL with his characteristic
determined optimism, and with good
reason. One high priority is the collection
of performance rights from new-media
companies. The first internet radio licence
was signed with AOL in September 2003
and other deals are now taking place. Global
webcasting and simulcasting agreements have
also been established through the IFPI to allow
societies such as PPL to enter into a bilateral
arrangement with other territories around the
world. This allows PPL to offer webcasters and
simulcasters a one stop licence to cover not
only the UK but all the other territories signed
to the agreements.
The substantially better climate created
between MCPS/PRS and PPL is enabling
both sides to focus on areas which
offer opportunities for a closer business
collaboration which will substantially benefit
the composers, songwriters and music
publishers as well as the record labels and
performers. Such initiatives are also likely to
benefit the users of music copyrights and would
be welcomed by the Government.
33
“ We now have a first class
collection society which
performs a clear and transparent
function on behalf of both its
record company members and
the recording artist community.
All this and decreasing
overheads too!
I am very proud to count Fran
amongst my close friends in
the industry and I offer him
and the entire PPL staff my
congratulations for a job well
done so far. Keep it up!”
Robert Allan, of Mayer, Brown, Rowe & Maw
“ PPL celebrates 70 years of
licensing copyrights on behalf
of record companies and
performers in the same year
that PRS celebrates 90 years of
licensing the works of composers
and publishers. The decades
have presented many challenges
but both organisations have
responded positively to each
of them and have evolved to
meet new licensing needs. The
challenges and the evolution
will continue but collective
licensing will remain the important
constant. A strong PPL is an
important contributor to our
cause. Congratulations on your
70th anniversary.”
John Hutchinson, Chief Executive,
MCPS / PRS Alliance
And so to 2034 continued
Another of the features of Fran Nevrkla’s
chairmanship has been his resolve to improve
the collection of revenues from overseas.
At PPL’s 2003 AGM, he spoke of his relentless
pursuit of the enormous sums of income owed
to UK labels and performers “by virtually every
overseas collecting society in the world. We shall
not go away, we shall not be shut up and we do
mean business.”
One of the new agreements lighting the way to
an encouraging future was reached in December
2003, when PPL formally bonded with
performers’ organisations AURA, Equity, the
MPG, the MU and PAMRA. This memorandum of
understanding means that PPL will act on behalf
of all those bodies as their single channel for
revenue collection from abroad.
In January 2004, as the body’s 70th birthday
rolled ever nearer, PPL took its total of
reciprocal deals with international counterpart
organisations to no fewer than 15, signing
a bilateral agreement with the Recording
Industry Association of Japan (RIAJ) to cover
record company rights for broadcasting
and public performance. That came just
weeks after the 13th pact, with Italian body
Societa Consortile Fonografici (SCF), went
into effect from January 1, allowing SCF to
represent UK labels in Italy while PPL collects
and distributes Italian royalties. Similar
agreements are already in place with SCPP
and SPPF in France, GVL in Germany, PPCA
in Australia and many others.
“ I am writing to congratulate PPL
on its 70th Anniversary.
The diversity, vibrancy and creativity
of the British music industry, of
which PPL is an inherent part,
has made it one of this country’s
biggest and most culturally
significant creative industries. These
qualities have earned it justifiable
international success, and its place
as a major player in the economy.
I wish the British music industry
every future success.”
The Rt Hon Estelle Morris MP
Minister of State for the Arts
Department for Culture, Media and Sport
Fran Nevrkla
PPL Chairman and CEO
“I seem to recall that following the ‘Velvet
Revolution’ in Czechoslovakia at the end of 1989,
the new Czech President Vaclav Havel said, “A
nation which loses respect for its history and
culture is in danger of losing its very soul.”
We at PPL owe a tremendous debt of gratitude
and appreciation to our early predecessors for
having the vision and capacity to understand
the fundamental importance of future collective
licensing and the obvious need to maximise
the income earning potential of sound
recordings through public performance and
broadcast usage. The rapid advancements in
new technologies make it increasingly easy for
music to be accessed and enjoyed (but not
necessarily paid for!) by an infinitely greater
number of consumers than ever before. This
potential threat, which also remains a very
exciting new business opportunity, means that
the early principles established so wisely by
our forefathers are much more pertinent today
than they had been in earlier periods. Whilst
PPL income may have been described by some
in previous times as the ‘icing on the cake’
this is no longer the case because quite rightly
both record companies and the performers
consider these revenues as fundamentally
important for their personal benefit as well as
for the economic viability of the industry as a
whole. This is particularly true because of the
continuing trend of declining sales of music
products in physical formats.
It is absolutely imperative for PPL to be a
vehicle which helps the record companies
and the performer community to uphold the
value of music, promote a greater respect for
copyright and to discipline the fast changing
environment and establish new income streams
by monetising fresh opportunities. In order to
achieve this PPL must be a highly professional
and well-managed organisation capable
of providing first class services to all its
constituents. By developing the right systems
and facilities whilst always striving for the
highest standards and remaining user-friendly
at all times, PPL can be a comfortable home
to all the record labels and all the performers
of which they can feel truly proud. Our success
in this area will be the ultimate proof that we
deserve the mantle which we have inherited
from our early predecessors.”
37
Timeline 1911–2004
1910
1911
Copyright Act
Giving protection
to records and
other sound
recordings.
1920
1930
1940
1950
1960
1970
1980
1990
2000
February 1933
Sound recording played
in Carwardine’s Tea and
Coffee Rooms, Bristol
without the consent of
the copyright owner.
1946
Ex- Gratia payments to
performers.
1951
First seven-inch single
released.
August 1967
Marine Offences Act became law
outlawing pirate stations.
October 1973
Launch of Commercial Radio.
September 1984
Administration of dubbing licences
was transferred from the BPI to PPL.
1952
Examination of
UK copyright legislation
in the Gregory Report.
September 1967
Radio One Launched.
1990
The Broadcasting Act of 1990 introduced a
statutory licence for the use of sound
recordings in broadcasts and cable
programme services.
April 2001
Performer Forum formed. Organisations
include AURA, Equity, Music Producers
Guild, Musicians’Union, PAMRA and PPL.
December 1933
High Court Case
Test Case – Gramophone
Co Ltd v Stephen
Carwardine & Co.
May 1934
PPL formed as a result
of test case.
September 1934
PPL move to Offices
in Wigmore Street.
38
12.5% to MU and 20% to
featured performers.
September 1940
PPL move to The Willows,
Warqrave, Berkshire.
December 1944
PPL move to 144 Wigmore
Street, (first floor)
London, W1.
1956
The Copyright Act 1956.
June 1954
PPL move to Avon House
(6th floor), 362/366 Oxford
Street, London, W1.
June 1961
PPL move to Evelyn House, 62
Oxford Street, London, W1.
April 1977
PPL move to Ganton House,14-22
Ganton Street, London, W1.
1984
PPL Celebrates 50th Birthday.
1988
The Copyright Designs
and Patents Act.
1993
Association of Independent Radio
Companies Ltd v PPL.
First case to be decided under new
statutory licensing provisions in which
the Tribunal settled the terms for
commercial radio broadcasters.
January 2002
CatCo Launched.
January 2003
Royalties Reunited campaign launched.
October 2003
EU Copyright Directive.
December 1996
Rental Directive implemented
giving performers a legal right to
receive equitable remuneration.
December 2003
Collaborative agreement signed between
PPL and the performer organisations, AURA,
Equity, Music Producers Guild, Musicians’
Union and PAMRA.
September 1997
PPL move to 1 Upper James Street,
London, W1F 9ED.
May 2004
70 Years of PPL.
39
70
Top 70 at 70
PPL’s Most Played Tracks of the Last 70 Years
PPL’s annual ‘most played’ chart is an incredibly
detailed and accurate survey that analyses well
over 10 million track plays. For the organisation’s
70th anniversary, PPL has produced an exclusive
and fascinating chart of the most played tracks
of the last seven decades.
Looking back over that period, there’ve been
seismic changes to the number of TV and
radio stations operating in the UK, as well
as the number of pubs, clubs, shops and
other public places broadcasting recorded
music, and the sheer volume of consumers
exposed to it. Plus, of course, the systems
that monitor music usage have introduced
a level of scientific accuracy that simply
didn’t exist when PPL was founded in 1934.
A consistent measurement methodology over
this time frame is, therefore, impossible, since
comprehensive usage reporting only exists for
the last few decades.
PPL has therefore devised a method that
can be applied across a 70-year period that
ensures each decade is fairly represented.
Research reflects the amount of play that a
track had when originally released, as well
as its subsequent exposure. Accordingly, the
70-year chart reflects the number of weeks the
track spent in the chart on release, which has
a high correlation with the amount of radio,
television and club play it received at the time;
and the ‘24/7’ reporting received by PPL in
‘current’ play, representing the data of the last
five years.
To produce the final chart, each of the seven
decades was allotted the same number of
points, with individual tracks allocated a
ranking based on equal weighting of the above
factors. Since the UK singles chart only began
in 1952, tracks from the 1930s and ’40s have
their points total calculated solely from current
play. Thus every single track from 1934-2003
gets an overall points tally, from which the ‘Top
70 at 70’ is compiled.
What results is a fascinating journey through
recorded music of the past 70 years—and
hang on for some surprises...
58
70
Stevie Wonder
69
68
Madonna Music
Robbie Williams
Millennium
67
Robbie Williams
Strong
66
East 17
65
Gerry & The Pacemakers
64
Macy Gray
63
Frankie Goes To Hollywood
62
Shadows
I Just Called To Say I Love You
Stay Another Day
You’ll Never Walk Alone
I Try
Relax
Wonderful Land
61
Frankie Laine
60
Stardust
59
Modjo
58
Bing Crosby
57
Cher
56
Jennifer Rush
55
Texas
54
Beatles
53
Black Box
52
Nilsson
51
The Verve
I Believe
Music Sounds Better With You
Lady (Hear Me Tonight) (Radio Edit)
Santa Claus Is Comin’ To Town
Shoop Shoop Song (It’s In His Kiss)
The Power Of Love
Say What You Want
From Me To You
Ride On Time
Without You
Bitter Sweet Symphony (Radio Edit)
57
40
41
44
50
Archies
49
Elvis Presley
48
New Radicals
47
Cliff Richard
46
Celine Dion
45
Slim Whitman
44
Rick Astley
43
David Whitfield
42
Rolling Stones
41
Lionel Richie
40
Culture Club
39
Everly Brothers
38
John Travolta & Olivia Newton John
37
Robbie Williams
36
Kylie Minogue
35
Glenn Miller And His Orchestra
34
Robbie Williams
33
Elton John
32
Spiller
31
Robbie Williams
30
Freda Payne
29
Police
28
Doris Day
27
Al Martino
Here In My Heart
26
Paul Anka
Diana
25
Madonna
24
T Rex
23
Natalie Imbruglia
22
Billy Joel
Hello
21
All Saints
Karma Chameleon
20
Elton John & Kiki Dee
19
Band Aid
18
Sinead O’Connor
17
Human League
16
Bing Crosby
15
George Harrison
14
Frankie Goes To Hollywood
13
Whitney Houston
12
John Lennon
11
Perry Como
Sugar Sugar
It’s Now Or Never
You Get What You Give
The Young Ones
Think Twice
Rose Marie
Never Gonna Give You Up
Cara Mia
Honky Tonk Women
Cathy’s Clown
You’re The One That I Want
She’s The One
Can’t Get You Out Of My Head
In The Mood
Angels
Sacrifice / Healing Hands
Groovejet (If This Ain’t Love) (Radio Edit)
Rock DJ
36
13
42
25
34
Band Of Gold
Don’t Stand So Close To Me
Whatever Will Be Will Be (Que Sera, Sera)
Vogue
Hot Love
Torn
Uptown Girl
Pure Shores
Don’t Go Breaking My Heart
Do They Know It’s Christmas
Nothing Compares 2 U
Don’t You Want Me
White Christmas
My Sweet Lord
Two Tribes
I Will Always Love You
Imagine
Magic Moments
12
43
Procol Harum
A Whiter Shade Of Pale
10
Beatles
Get Back
The only Beatles track (apart from their early work with Tony
Sheridan) to credit another performer, billed as The Beatles with
Billy Preston. It was No.1 in Britain for PPL’s 35th birthday.
9
25
9
Beatles
Hello Goodbye
Not ‘Yesterday’, ‘Hey Jude’ or ‘She Loves You’...the most-played
Fab Four track of them all was the their 13th British chart-topper
and the UK’s Christmas No.1 of 1967.
8
Rod Stewart
Maggie May
Roderick David Stewart’s kick-off to global superstardom
came seven years after his solo recording debut and started
life as a b-side.
7
Elvis Presley
All Shook Up
The King’s most-played song in the UK was his tenth British
single, his first No.1 here and the only one on which he’s listed
as ‘co-writer,’ with Otis Blackwell.
7
6
ABBA
Dancing Queen
The handbag disco anthem of them all was the superSwedes’
third UK No.1 in a row with sales of 850,000 at the time, but
their only American chart-topper.
5
Bryan Adams
(Everything I Do) I Do It For You
No.1 in the UK for an entire season in 1991, across 16 weeks
from July to November, beating the record of 11 weeks held
since 1955 by Slim Whitman’s ‘Rose Marie’.
4
Everly Brothers
All I Have To Do Is Dream, Claudette
No.1 for seven weeks in 1958, with one side written by the great
Felice and Boudleaux Bryant and the other by a then-unknown
Roy Orbison about his wife Claudette.
3
Love Is All Around
The most recent track in our all-time chart came within one week
of matching Bryan Adams’ 16-week run at the top in 1994. Who
stopped the Scots? Come on down, Whigfield’s ‘Saturday Night’.
2
2
4
Wet Wet Wet
Queen
Bohemian Rhapsody
Admit it, you thought it would be No.1...but nine weeks at the top
in 1975-76 and five more in 1991-92 aren’t quite enough to give
Freddie Mercury and the boys the all-time crown...
...which goes instead to the
famously cryptic lyrics of Keith
Reid and a melody based by
Gary Brooker on a movement
in Bach’s Suite No.3 in D
Major. Worldwide sales of ‘A
Whiter Shade’ were eventually
estimated at six million singles.
Chairmen
From 1934 to present
Sir Louis Sterling
June 1934 to May 1939
Sir Robert McLean
July 1939 to March 1944
Mr Alfred Clark
October 1944 to December 1946
Sir Ernest Thomas Fisk
December 1946 to May 1952
Sir Alexander Aikman
May 1952 to November 1953
Sir Edward Lewis
January 1954 until his death in January 1980
Mr L G Wood
From late 1969 until the appointment of Maurice Oberstein in 1980
Mr L G Wood was acting Chairman in Sir Edward’s absence.
Mr Maurice Lewis Oberstein
December 1980 to September 1983
Mr Ramon Lopez
September 1983 to April 1985
Mr Peter Jamieson
July 1985 to May 1986
Mr John Brooks
June 1986 to May 1993
Mr Rupert Perry
June 1993 to September 1993
Mr Tim Bowen
September 1993 to January 1996
Mr Clive Rich
June 1996 to June 1998
Mr Clive Fisher
June 1998 to October 2000
Mr Fran Nevrkla
October 2000 to date
46
Used with permission of John Winstone
P6 Carwadine Coffee shop
Used with permission of EMI Records Ltd.
P8 – Elgar at Abbey Road, 43 – Robbie Williams
Used with permission of MPC Entertainment
P18 – Tony Blackburn
Redferns Music Picture Library
P14, 21, 22, 32,34, 36, 41 – Stevie Wonder, Bing Crosby,
42 – Rick Astley, 43 – John Lennon, 44 – The Beatles, Elvis,
Freddie Mercury, The Everly Brothers, 45 – Procol Harum
John Marshall/jmenternational.com
P26, 29, 41 – Cher, 42 – Kylie Minogue,
Whitney Houston, 43 – Madonna