Royalties for UK publishers and songwriters grow 8.5%
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The MCPS reveal a strong 2023 which represents growth across the industry, boosting music publishers and songwriters in the UK.
The Mechanical-Copyright Protection Society (MCPS) have revealed their figures for 2023. MCPS distributions grew 8.5% last year, growing by £204.3 million.
The UK society are responsible for collecting mechanical royalties on behalf of publishers and songwriters, then paying those parties. Their growth is a good sign for songwriters in the UK music industry.
The MCPS cited “the growth of streaming, the continued popularity of vinyl, and increasing the international royalty collections” as boosts. Over the last five years, the society has seen distributions grow by 43%. In that time they’ve added more than 9,000 publishers, songwriters, and composers to their services.
Growth does not simply mean that the industry is in a good place however. MCPS chair Jackie Alway writes: “Preserving the strength of the mechanical copyright will be vital in the coming years to help ensure those who invest their time, talent, and money into creating music are fairly remunerated.”
Whilst music in the UK continues to growth – largely thanks to streaming, with Spotify revealing over £750 million in payments to UK artists last year – the industry is still facing troubles.
Music venues are closing across the country with more than a third of indie venues making a loss. Many artists are also facing difficulties with making a living in a tough industry.
However, 2023 represented a record year for women who made up more of the top-performing songs than ever before in the UK.