Photo Credit: Ivan Oštrić
The Italian performance rights distributor Societa Consortile Fonografici (SCF) has announced a 3% revenue bump for the first half of 2024.
The SCF says its trend of distributions to phonographic producers for H1 2024 marks a growth of 3% compared to last year, while the broadcasting and web area records +30% compared year-over-year. Private Copy fell by 17%, due to the physiological reduction in revenues and a mix of factors from natural decline in the device market at the end of COVID to an unforeseen tariff revision, from the DM exemption and refunds effect and to the decrease in Newsstand Private Copy.
The amount of costs went down by 6% compared to 2023, which the SCF says is in line with the budget forecast which has allowed further investment in technical resources. The SCF says its number of bilateral agreements is also growing, citing Australia, India, and Peru for performance rights and private copy—for a total of 31 existing reciprocity agreements.
There are over 25 million songs in the SCF catalog, the SCF says it is “creating an eco system capable of streamlining the conflict resolution procedure—especially those useful for playlists and film works—thanks to a new dedicated area in Katalegale.”
“We are happy with the results obtained in the first half of 2024, in line with what was achieved in 2023,” adds Mariano Fiorito, SCF General Director. “The growth in revenues in the Broadcasting and Web sector as well as in Public Performance, in addition to the increase in bilateral agreements and mandates, is a clear signal of the trust placed in our constant commitment and ability to adapt to constantly evolving market dynamics.”
The SCF adds that it is no coincidence that the RDx platform has recorded an important flow of repertoires, activating new clients. The service was built and is operated by Phonographic Performance Limited (PPL), first launched in October 2020 by the IFPI to standardize the delivery of performance rights data. It uses a specific data format that improves accuracy and efficiency of royalty distributions to rights holders among participating music licensing companies like SCF.
