Independent Music Publishers e-Licensing (IMPEL) have confirmed that online royalties paid out to them by the likes of Apple Music, iTunes, Spotify and YouTube increased by 60% last year. This figure refers to distributions made by IMPEL, which collectively licenses Anglo-American mechanical digital rights in Europe for publishers.
The growth in IMPEL’s online royalties was due to substantial growth in streaming, with ERA data revealing that digital music retail revenues grew 15.8% across streaming and download in the UK market in 2016 - a figure that was up to £633.1m.
Commenting on the increase, Jane Dyball, CEO, IMPEL, said: "IMPEL is a major player now in the digital space. By uniting their repertoire and pro-actively engaging with the digital community the independent publishers are operating on a par with the majors. With repertoire spanning decades, genres and which has been recorded by iconic artists from Elvis to Bowie to Drake, the IMPEL repertoire has become an essential repertoire for digital services. IMPEL is growing in all directions and 2017 is going to be a ground-breaking year for us."
IMPEL has 46 members, including Beggars Music, Imagem, SONGS Music Publishing, Bucks Music Group, Mute Song, peermusic, Reservoir Media, Sentric Music, Spirit B-Unique and The Music Sales Group. Their repertoire covers artists such as Elvis, The Rolling Stones, David Bowie, Drake, The Weeknd, Ed Sheeran, Bruno Mars, Mark Ronson and many more.
“2016 was an outstanding year for IMPEL and that success has been shared by all members regardless of size or repertoire type,” added Chris Butler, head of publishing at Music Sales Group and IMPEL board member. “It shows what can be done by publishers working together and licensing collectively in the digital marketplace.”
FOLLOW 
