70 Y

EARS

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

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 confi dence 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 fi ghting the good fi ght for music-makers everywhere.

Application for Licence, 1943

70 Years of PPL

5

Café on Baldwin St, Bristol

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.

The Test Case

7

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.

Edward Elgar at Abbey Road

Time Capsule May 1934

9

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’.

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.

John Deacon, Director General of the BPI, 1979-2000

“ 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.”

Time Capsule continued

10

The Early Days

J.P. Carrigan Letter

After that test case of 1934, the fl edgling 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 offi ce to record-spinners 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 confi dent 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 fl edgling 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 offi ces 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.

13

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.

The Early Days continued

15

Rock ’n’ Roll Copyright is Here to StayIn 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.

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

16

Tuned for RoyaltiesIf 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.”

Tony Blackburn at Radio 1 in 1967

19

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.”

“ 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

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

Tuned for Royalties continued

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 fi ve years. He was writing in the sleeve notes of a specially-produced seven-inch disc featuring some of the most-reproduced recordings of the organisation’s fi rst fi ve decades, from ‘We’re Tops On Saturday Night’ by Ambrose and his Orchestra to ‘Cum On Feel The Noize’ by Slade.

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 profi ts on conventional recorded music sales compared to usage revenue was 16:1. By 1986, it was just 2:1.

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 fi vefold, by 522%, in the 1980s to a total of over £118 million.

50 Not Out“ 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.”

Martin Mills, Chairman, the Beggars Group

1934-43 1944-53 1954-63 1964-73 1974-83 1984-93 1994-03

REV

ENUE

GRO

WTH

%

BETT

ER T

HAN

RPI

0.0

REVE

NUE

£M

0

100

200

300

400

500

£8.0£2.6£1.3£0.6

PPL Revenue Growth Versus RPI

0.5

1.0

1.5

2.0

2.5

3.0

4.0

3.5

£592.1

£226.9

£55.9

24 25

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.

Onwards and Upwards

27

“ 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

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.

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.

Onwards and Upwards continued

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

28

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.

“ 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.

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.

“ 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

Onwards and Upwards continued

30 31

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.

“ 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

And so to 2034

33

“ 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

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.

And so to 2034 continued

“ 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

“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.”

Fran Nevrkla PPL Chairman and CEO

37

1951First seven-inch single released.

1952Examination of UK copyright legislation in the Gregory Report.

1956The Copyright Act 1956.

June 1954PPL move to Avon House (6th fl oor), 362/366 Oxford Street, London, W1.

April 2001Performer Forum formed. Organisations include AURA, Equity, Music Producers Guild, Musicians’Union, PAMRA and PPL.

January 2002CatCo Launched.

January 2003Royalties Reunited campaign launched.

October 2003EU Copyright Directive.

December 2003Collaborative agreement signed between PPL and the performer organisations, AURA, Equity, Music Producers Guild, Musicians’ Union and PAMRA.

May 200470 Years of PPL.

1990 The Broadcasting Act of 1990 introduced a statutory licence for the use of sound recordings in broadcasts and cable programme services.

1993Association 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.

December 1996Rental Directive implementedgiving performers a legal right to receive equitable remuneration.

September 1997 PPL move to 1 Upper James Street, London, W1F 9ED.

September 1984Administration of dubbing licences was transferred from the BPI to PPL.

1984PPL Celebrates 50th Birthday.

1988The Copyright Designs and Patents Act.

October 1973Launch of Commercial Radio.

April 1977PPL move to Ganton House,14-22 Ganton Street, London, W1.

August 1967Marine Offences Act became law outlawing pirate stations.

September 1967Radio One Launched.

June 1961PPL move to Evelyn House, 62 Oxford Street, London, W1.

1946Ex- Gratia payments to performers.

12.5% to MU and 20% to featured performers.

September 1940PPL move to The Willows, Warqrave, Berkshire.

December 1944PPL move to 144 Wigmore Street, (fi rst fl oor) London, W1.

February 1933Sound recording played in Carwardine’s Tea and Coffee Rooms, Bristol without the consent of the copyright owner.

December 1933High Court CaseTest Case – Gramophone Co Ltd v Stephen Carwardine & Co.

May 1934PPL formed as a result of test case.

September 1934PPL move to Offi ces in Wigmore Street.

1911Copyright ActGiving protection to records and other sound recordings.

196019501940193019201910 199019801970 2000

Timeline 1911–2004

3938

70 Stevie Wonder I Just Called To Say I Love You

69 Madonna Music

68 Robbie Williams Millennium

67 Robbie Williams Strong

66 East 17 Stay Another Day

65 Gerry & The Pacemakers You’ll Never Walk Alone

64 Macy Gray I Try

63 Frankie Goes To Hollywood Relax

62 Shadows Wonderful Land

61 Frankie Laine I Believe

60 Stardust Music Sounds Better With You

59 Modjo Lady (Hear Me Tonight) (Radio Edit)

58 Bing Crosby Santa Claus Is Comin’ To Town

57 Cher Shoop Shoop Song (It’s In His Kiss)

56 Jennifer Rush The Power Of Love

55 Texas Say What You Want

54 Beatles From Me To You

53 Black Box Ride On Time

52 Nilsson Without You

51 The Verve Bitter Sweet Symphony (Radio Edit)

70

58

57

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...

Top 70 at 70 PPL’s Most Played Tracks of the Last 70 Years

4140

30 Freda Payne Band Of Gold

29 Police Don’t Stand So Close To Me

28 Doris Day Whatever Will Be Will Be (Que Sera, Sera)

27 Al Martino Here In My Heart

26 Paul Anka Diana

25 Madonna Vogue

24 T Rex Hot Love

23 Natalie Imbruglia Torn

22 Billy Joel Uptown Girl

21 All Saints Pure Shores

20 Elton John & Kiki Dee Don’t Go Breaking My Heart

19 Band Aid Do They Know It’s Christmas

18 Sinead O’Connor Nothing Compares 2 U

17 Human League Don’t You Want Me

16 Bing Crosby White Christmas

15 George Harrison My Sweet Lord

14 Frankie Goes To Hollywood Two Tribes

13 Whitney Houston I Will Always Love You

12 John Lennon Imagine

11 Perry Como Magic Moments

25

34

12

50 Archies Sugar Sugar

49 Elvis Presley It’s Now Or Never

48 New Radicals You Get What You Give

47 Cliff Richard The Young Ones

46 Celine Dion Think Twice

45 Slim Whitman Rose Marie

44 Rick Astley Never Gonna Give You Up

43 David Whitfield Cara Mia

42 Rolling Stones Honky Tonk Women

41 Lionel Richie Hello

40 Culture Club Karma Chameleon

39 Everly Brothers Cathy’s Clown

38 John Travolta & Olivia Newton John You’re The One That I Want

37 Robbie Williams She’s The One

36 Kylie Minogue Can’t Get You Out Of My Head

35 Glenn Miller And His Orchestra In The Mood

34 Robbie Williams Angels

33 Elton John Sacrifice / Healing Hands

32 Spiller Groovejet (If This Ain’t Love) (Radio Edit)

31 Robbie Williams Rock DJ36

13

44

4342

Procol HarumA Whiter Shade Of Pale

...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.

10 Beatles Get BackThe 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 Beatles Hello GoodbyeNot ‘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 MayRoderick 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 UpThe King’s most-played song in the UK was his tenth British single, his fi rst No.1 here and the only one on which he’s listed as ‘co-writer,’ with Otis Blackwell.

6 ABBA Dancing QueenThe 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 YouNo.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, ClaudetteNo.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 Wet Wet Wet Love Is All AroundThe 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, Whigfi eld’s ‘Saturday Night’.

2 Queen Bohemian RhapsodyAdmit it, you thought it would be No.1...but nine weeks at the top in 1975-76 and fi ve more in 1991-92 aren’t quite enough to give Freddie Mercury and the boys the all-time crown...

25

2

4

7

9

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

Chairmen From 1934 to present

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

46