PPL
LONDON — Dua Lipa has been named as the U.K.’s most-played artist across radio, TV and public places in 2024, surpassing Ed Sheeran, Taylor Swift and more. This is the second time she has achieved the feat, having first done so in 2020.
On Tuesday (May 20) collection society PPL (Phonographic Performance Limited) shared its annual report into the U.K.’s most played music over the past year, with its data reporting the music played on radio, TV and in public places across the UK, including shops, bars, restaurants, gyms, offices and more.
Lipa, who released her third album Radical Optimism in 2024, also features in the most-played songs list, with “Houdini” named as the sixth-most played song in the U.K. last year. Speaking to Billboard U.K. as part of the Global No. 1s issue, Lipa said that 2024 was “the best year of my life,” and that she’s “so proud” of the LP and “where it’s brought me.” The album hit No. 1 in the U.K., and No. 3 on the Billboard 200.
Trending on Billboard
In June 2024, Lipa kicked off her Radical Optimism era with a huge headline slot at Glastonbury Festival in England, which was also broadcast live on the BBC and streamed online globally. Her ongoing tour will head to London’s Wembley Stadium in June, before continuing into North America this fall.
Data released by PPL says that Lipa’s music is played on average 400 times a day, with her 2018 hit “One Kiss” averaging 55 plays per day across UK radio and TV. Ed Sheeran was 2023’s most-played artist, and has claimed the prize seven of the past 10 years.
Seven of the top 10 artists in the PPL’s list were British, with Taylor Swift, Ed Sheeran, David Guetta, Coldplay, Calvin Harris, Ariana Grande, Elton John, Becky Hill, and Harry Styles all placing behind Lipa in the top spot, respectively.
Elsewhere, Noah Kahan’s “Stick Season” was named as the U.K.’s most-played song in 2024, with a number of international superstars dominating the top 10. Teddy Swims’ “Lose Control,” Benson Boone’s “Beautiful Things,” Dasha’s “Austin (Boots Stop Workin’)” and Myles Smith’s “Stargazing” round out the top five.
Alongside Dasha’s triumph, country songs perform well overall perform, with Shaboozey’s “A Bar Song (Tipsy)” (No. 7), Beyoncé’s “Texas Hold ‘Em” (No. 11) and Post Malone’s team-up with Morgan Wallen “I Had Some Help” (No. 12) all appearing in the data.
Peter Leathem OBE, PPL CEO, said: “Congratulations once again to Dua Lipa for leading PPL’s Most Played Artist Chart, and to Noah Kahan for securing the most played track of the year. British artists continue to perform well, making up 70% of the Top 10 – proving they have staying power across the nation’s broadcasters, businesses and public spaces. It is also fantastic to see fresh UK talent such as Myles Smith make a big splash in the top five most played tracks, showing there is plenty of promise in UK music going forward.”
PPL Most Played Tracks 2024
Noah Kahan, “Stick Season”
Teddy Swims, “Lose Control”
Benson Boone, “Beautiful Things”
Dasha, “Austin (Boots Stop Workin’)”
Myles Smith, “Stargazing”
Dua Lipa, “Houdini”
Shaboozey, “A Bar Song (Tipsy)”
Sabrina Carpenter, “Espresso”
Hozier, “Too Sweet”
Coldplay, “Feelslikeimfallinginlove”
A criminal investigation has been launched into suspected fraud at U.K. collecting society PPL after the organization discovered “suspicious activity” on a small number of member accounts.
PPL said one staff member had been dismissed following an internal investigation it carried out over several months earlier this year. The alleged crime is now being investigated by The Metropolitan Police, the CMO said in a short statement.
“We recently became aware of suspicious activity on a small number of member accounts. We immediately conducted an internal investigation, and one employee was dismissed,” said a spokesperson Thursday (Dec.19). The organization said it was “working with the limited number of impacted members to rectify accounts.”
PPL is the second largest of the United Kingdom’s two main collecting societies and licenses recorded music on behalf of labels and artists to U.K. radio and television broadcasters, as well as its use in bars, nightclubs, shops and offices.
Trending on Billboard
Last year, the 90-year-old organization — which has more than 110 neighboring rights agreements in place with international CMOs, including SoundExchange and the Alliance of Artists and Recording Companies (AARC) in the United States — collected revenues of £285 million ($356 million), its highest ever annual total. In 2023, PPL paid out £247 million ($309 million) to almost 165,000 performers and recording rights holders.
Record industry sources tell Billboard that the suspected embezzlement is believed to have involved an individual or individuals posing as recording artists who were not registered as PPL members and then fraudulently claiming royalties on their behalf.
Billboard understands that PPL discovered the scheme when the real artists tried to register as members earlier this year. Sources say that the fraudulent royalty claims are believed to have taken place over a number of years, possibly as far back as 2016, with the fraudulent transactions believed to total around £500,000 ($625,000).
PPL said it was unable to comment on the case while a criminal investigation is underway and declined to answer questions on when it discovered the suspicious activity, the timeframe of the alleged offense or whether the impacted member accounts relate to U.K. artist members or overseas partner CMOs. The Metropolitan Police has been approached by Billboard for details.
The criminal investigation into suspected embezzlement at PPL comes as the music business battles on multiple fronts against fraudulent activity and rampant copyright infringement on a global scale.
In November, Universal Music Group (UMG), ABKCO and Concord Music Group filed a lawsuit against Believe and its distribution company TuneCore, accusing them of “massive ongoing infringements” of their sound recordings, seeking $500 million in damages (Believe refutes the claims). One month earlier, TikTok cited issues with “fraud” as its reason for walking away from renewing its license with Merlin, a digital licensing coalition representing thousands of indie labels and distributors.
There have also been several high-profile cases against individuals accused of defrauding streaming platforms, rights holders and collection societies in recent years.
In 2022, two men in Phoenix, Arizona pled guilty to claiming $23 million worth of YouTube royalties from unknowing Latin musicians like Julio Iglesias, Anuel AA, and Daddy Yankee despite having no actual ties to those artists.
More recently, a North Carolina musician was indicted by federal prosecutors in September in the first ever federal streaming fraud case. Prosecutors allege Michael Smith used two distributors to upload “hundreds of thousands” of AI-generated tracks, and then used bots to stream them, earning him more than $10 million since 2017.
To try and curb the rise in fraudulent activity the music business has been ramping up its efforts to stop money being illegally siphoned out of the royalty pool.
Last year, a coalition of digital music companies, including distributors including TuneCore, Distrokid and CD Baby, as well as streaming platforms Spotify and Amazon Music, launched the “Music Fights Fraud” task force. The past 12 months have additionally seen Spotify and Deezer change their royalty systems to include financial penalties for music distributors and labels associated with fraudulent activity.
PPL has been appointed to collect neighboring rights for John Lennon and Yoko Ono. Announced Tuesday (Oct. 15), the deal will see the U.K.-based collective management organization (CMO) collect broadcast and public performance royalties globally on sound recordings where Lennon or Ono are listed as performers in markets where such rights exist. “PPL has shown […]
-
Pages