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Irish Music Rights Organisation reports 4.2pc drop in licensing revenue

Financial report shows dip in IMRO licencing revenue, and 13 per cent increase in overseas revenue.

Image: gudka via Creative Commons

THE IRISH MUSIC Rights Organisation (IMRO) has reported a 4.2 per cent drop in licensing revenue for 2011 to €36.5 million.

IMRO says the drop was anticipated and reflects the ongoing difficult economic trading environment for all licensees, especially in the hospitality sector.

Meanwhile, broadcasting (excluding cable) and concert revenue remained stable last year, and 566 new members signed up last year. Public performance revenue (royalties arising from music used in bars, shops, cinemas, hotels and offices) fell by 9 per cent in comparison to 2010 to €13.5 million.

The organisation reports an increase in overseas revenue of 13 per cent to €3.7 million for the year. Of this, 35 per cent was generated in the UK, 36 per cent in other EU countries and 11 per cent in the US.

IMRO CEO Victor Finn said the copyright music company “remains committed to representing a collective voice for music creators in a challenging economic environment”.

“We have and will continue to invest in our IT systems in order to further drive revenues,” he added. “The majority of members are now using the members online portal to manage their membership transactions with IMRO. This is delivering both savings and enhanced information flow for all. The recent launch of a new and improved IMRO website continues our investment in online tools for members and licensees.”

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Comments (16 Comments)

  • My heart bleeds for that Organisation…

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  • alan 20/06/12 #

    IMRO are as much lackeys to the music business as they are collectors for individual artists.

    the main problem is that they are living in teh past and have little or no idea how to deal with the new music environment. and as the posts above make clear, the consequences of this are, in the main, negative. this allied to similar deficieinces in relation to copyright issues (remember sean sherlock) means that the whole of the music ‘business’ is in disarray

    more power to the bloggers and to artists themselves who recognise the future when they see it and who arent slave to some outdated model. U2 and their ilk (including IMRO) can do all they like to try and stop file sharing (while tax avoiding themselves) and blogging, but they are, i am glad to say, fighting a losing battle

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  • I’d rather not get into my multitude of reasons on a public forum but notably, their antics in 2010 when they came close to shutting down some of Ireland’s most popular music blogs would be up there.

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    • OK, but I guess that is a personal issue. If I am correct, they were requesting the site owners pay a license and thus protecting the artists royalties of songs distributed on those blogs who were sharing songs. If the composer/author or publisher of a track has mandated IMRO to license and collect royalties on their behalf then they must do their job. I sympathize with the smaller blogs who do it out of a passion for music, but nevertheless if I was an independent artist I don’t think my heart would bleed so sarcastically for IMRO or similar organizations.

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    • no Paula they actually had the opposite, if you interviewed any act associated with Into then you were required to pay the license, if a blog uploaded interviews text or video (bearing in mind artists tend to approach blogs for coverage) then the blog had to pay. if the artist provided a track for free but were associated with into then the blog still had to pay. james Vincent mcmorrow done a great piece about how disgraceful it was, Plus if you Google imro scandal you’ll find plenty of articles about into not paying artists their royalties at all when that number was astronomical. imros a badly run organisation which promotes itself as the artists friend when actually its quite the opposite

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  • Or just stopped playing music!!

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  • Businesses closing.

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  • Surely this is due to piracy and has nothing to do with the economic situation at all. Bring in some draconian internet piracy legislation that’s unimplementable and unenforceable and all will be well again.

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    • IMRO get most of their funds from businesses that play music though, don’t they? Not sure how piracy would affect that. I know in some of the places I work, where music used to be played on the factory floor, it was switched off this year.

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  • Imro are demanding very high fees and causing more and more businesses to stop playing music , they should really have a look at the devastation they are causing !!!!!!nSickens me

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