PPL not exactly trumpeting the good news

An email from Paul W points out that, bar the odd mention on Today, a bit in DeHavilland subscriber's area, there wasn't much made about PPL's supposed 50% in royalties raised.

Odd - when there's pain in the music industry, there's press releases all over the place. This is pretty good news, and yet hardly a word.

There was a feature on BBC News' business programme just after 6.30pm, though, when it became clear that the headline rise of 50% in royalty take actually refers to overseas royalties.

That's confirmed by the actual press release - available as a PDF, like it's 1997, bless them.

Part of this is down to a change in the US tax regime - PPL is now allowed to take US royalties without tax being withheld in America.

It turns out, then, that by doing their job more effectively, PPL is having a better positive effect on its members' incomes than their sister organisation PRS manage through whining and bitching. While PRS hassles mechanics because people in waiting rooms can hear Radio 2 through the door, PPL seem to be focusing on making more effective collections of the cash that's there. It's a bit of a shame the news has been buried.