PPL CEO Peter Leathem has welcomed competition in neighbouring rights.
Last month BMG announced that it was now expanding into neighbouring rights. The Who’s Roger Daltrey and Jonas Blue are among the first clients.
While Leathem has issued a warning about the impact of Covid-19 on collections, he expects growth of neighbouring rights in the long term.
“The global market is continuing to grow,” said Leathem. “Competition itself is good, it’s led to a much better market for performers. PPL entered around 15 years ago, and it has driven up the performance of the overall sector to the benefit of performers.”
International collections at PPL increased by 22% in 2019, according to the latest results.
Recent PPL signings for neighbouring rights collections include George Ezra, Jade Bird and ABBA’s Bjorn Ulvaeus.
Competition itself is good, it’s led to a much better market for performers
Peter Leathem
Leathem highlighted PPL’s data capabilities and ability to demonstrate successful management of global collections.
“We already have over 20 competitors in London alone,” said Leathem. “With BMG entering that market, they will be one of the many that have decided they would like to provide those services.
“We have always had to compete, and we seem to be doing quite well in providing services and showing what we can do to add value and deliver for the performers that are appointing us.”
Leathem stressed that it collects neighbouring rights income for around 50,000 performers, rather than just big acts.
Despite Lewis Capaldi’s move from PPL to Kobalt, Leathem is confident about its expanding roster.
“There’s a stream of very well known and successful performers continuing to use PPL for international collections,” he said. “The trend is definitely flowing in our direction as opposed to away to other commercial agents.”
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