The latest collecting society to announced impressive numbers for 2018 is ASCAP in the US. Its total revenues grew by 7% to $1.23bn last year, while its distributions grew by 10% to $1.11bn – the second billion-dollar-plus year in a row for the PRO’s payouts. Within these results, ASCAP’s audio-streaming revenue grew by 25%, while ‘audio visual’ was up by 7%.
“Four years into our six-year strategic plan, we are seeing healthy year-over-year compound annual revenue growth rates averaging 7%,” said CEO Elizabeth Matthews. “In 2018 alone, our commitment to efficiency and innovation allowed us to pay more than $100 million more to our members in distributions than the prior year all while we continue to take the steps necessary to protect their future.”
In its annual report, ASCAP also hailed the impact of new licensing deals with companies including Spotify, Apple Music and Amazon Music, as well as Facebook, iHeartMedia and Hulu.
While praising the passage of the Music Modernization Act last year, president Paul Williams warned that “there is still more work to do to modernise music licensing laws and bring us closer to a free market and fair value for songwriters’ creative work”.
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