New technology allows copying in back rooms

John Hutchinson, MCPS-PRS Alliance

The rises come amid increasing music industry fears over internet music piracy and CD copying.

More than �220m - in songwriters' royalties from CD sales - was distributed to MCPS members while the PRS handed out �206m to songwriters for performances - both live and on television and radio.

The rise in PRS revenue is largely due to an increase in the money raised from public performances - particularly pubs and clubs, which pay a PRS licence to host live music, DJs or juke boxes.

John Hutchinson, chief executive of the MCPS-PRS Alliance told BBC News Online: "Our biggest single public performance sector - public houses - again performed well with a 13% increase over 1999 and revenue from clubs was up 18%."

Piracy

Recently there have been fears in the music industry that so-called mechanical royalties - from record and CD sales - would be hit by a substantial rise in piracy.

In June the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI) estimated that piracy had increased by 25% between 1999 and 2000 - with one in every three recordings sold worldwide being an illegal copy.

But figures released in May by the BPI showed that UK sales of legitimate products were still buoyant, and that the annualised total had passed the �1bn mark for the first time.

MCPS collects royalties on records and CDs

Mr Hutchinson told BBC News Online that despite positive sales news piracy remained a worry.

"The type of piracy we've been coming across is new - it's being committed by people who weren't involved in piracy before using new technology that allows copying in back rooms."

He added: "There's no doubt that that level of piracy is increasing."

The MCPS and PRS - which form an operational alliance - are also investing in a project called the International Music Joint Venture (IMJV) which is intended to make the international monitoring and collection for music use more efficient.

The venture is being developed with the American royalty collecting society ASCAP and the Dutch society Buma/Stemra.