12 August 2008
Fans boost online performances
The MCPS-PRS Alliance, the organisation that collects and pays royalties to composers and songwriters, today reveals what the most successful songs on licensed websites were during 2007.
The Alliance analysed 60 million downloads and streams of music on licensed websites such as YouTube, iTunes and Bebo, in order to pay royalties accurately to its 60,000 members.
The number of online performances of tracks like Bleeding Love (which represented 6% of all analysed performances) and Crank Dat Soulja were boosted by postings of self-made videos – often of fans performing the songs themselves to camera. The craze for posting group dance videos also contributed to the findings.
The most performed online songs were as follows:
| 1 |
BLEEDING LOVE |
Leona Lewis |
| 2 |
CRANK DAT SOULJA |
Soulja Boy Tellem |
| 3 |
APOLOGIZE |
Timbaland / OneRepublic |
| 4 |
UMBRELLA |
Rihanna ft. Jay-Z |
| 5 |
BEAUTIFUL GIRL |
Sean Kingston |
| 6 |
GIMME MORE |
Britney Spears |
| 7 |
HEARTBROKEN |
T2 ft. Jodie Aysha |
| 8 |
ABOUT YOU NOW |
Sugababes |
| 9 |
YOU ARE THE MUSIC IN ME (REPRISE) |
High School Musical |
| 10 |
THE WAY I ARE |
Timbaland ft. Keri Hilson |
Source: MCPS-PRS Alliance
Andrew Shaw, Managing Director of Broadcast and Online at the Alliance, said: ‘The trend for posting self-made videos is driving the number of performances on the websites we license. Hairbrush divas are not only helping to generate royalties for the writers of their favourite music but could also prove to have the X Factor themselves and be our stars of tomorrow.
‘Lots more performances of music are needed online to generate meaningful royalties since each download or stream is individual in comparison to the wider audience numbers achieved by broadcasts on traditional media channels such as radio or TV.
‘As more and more music is consumed online, we need to continually develop increasingly sophisticated tracking systems in order to ensure that the songwriter and creator community is sustained, enabling a continued future for music.’
Notes for editors:
A typical radio station plays 12,000 pieces of music in a three month period. During the same timeframe, on services like YouTube, MCPS-PRS will analyse some two billion performances of 14m different videos.
PRS creates a future for music. As a not-for-profit membership society, PRS ensures composers, songwriters and music publishers are paid royalties whenever their music is used. www.mcps-prs-alliance.co.uk
Contact:
PRS: Victoria Briggs - 020 7306 4047
Brunswick: Michelangelo Bendandi - 0207 4040 5959