The collective management of performers’ rights in the UK: a story of competing interests
Ananay Aguilar recently published an article on Scripted looking at PPL. It is an investigation into whether PPL is inherently unfair to session players since it is owned by the record companies.
Abstract
In this article I examine the experience of UK performers using collective management organisation PPL, a UK CMO established by record companies that also manages the rights of performers. I consider the effect of the regulatory framework on the provision of transparency to PPL’s performer members by drawing on primary sources including interviews with performers, PPL’s regulation and its public-facing material. I demonstrate that PPL marshals social, financial, legal and technological resources to prioritise the interests of record companies over those of performers. Considering that the current legal framework supports PPL’s actions, I discuss two alternatives: i) tightening regulation of individual CMOs whilst respecting their monopoly status, and ii) opening up the sector to competition. Despite difficulties faced by performers vis-à-vis PPL, I ultimately side with a large body of literature suggesting that performers are best off in an environment that supports CMO’s monopoly status. However, in an environment where regulators resist tightening regulation, performers are forced to support a competitive market for CMOs.
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