If we take the UK’s most listened-to radio show - BBC Radio 2’s Breakfast Show - then the songwriter can expect the Performing Right Society for Music (PRS) to collect around GBP90 on their behalf, and the artist can expect Phonographic Performance Limited (PPL) to collect roughly GBP60. Stare at a royalty statement which lists GBP150 for a spin alongside GBP0.005 for a stream and you can understand the fear of letting go of the old vine.
But the economics don’t support that fear. A ‘spin’ on BBC Radio 2’s Breakfast Show will reach 8 million people; you need therefore to divide the GBP150 by the 8 million pairs of ears to get a comparative unit value per listener, and this results in GBP0.00002 - which is less than half a percent of the GBP0.005 that you would get from one unique person on a streaming service. What’s more, this is not an either/or comparison as those who listen to it on the radio may be more inclined to stream it on Spotify. To bring this calculation full circle, had those 8 million listeners streamed the song on Spotify (which is not beyond the realms of possibility), a cheque of GBP40,000 would be paid across to the artist and songwriter - not GBP150. ‘Not too shabby’ as some Americans like to say.
