MERLIN, THE GLOBAL DIGITAL RIGHTS AGENCY FOR THE INDEPENDENT LABEL SECTOR, HAS TODAY PUBLISHED RESULTS OF ITS 2015 MEMBER SURVEY
London, 25th June 2015
Merlin, the global digital rights agency for the independent label sector, has today published results of its 2015 member survey.
Representing the most valuable set of rights outside of those controlled by the three major labels, Merlin’s membership commands in excess of 10% of the global digital market across more than 20,000 labels – including the likes of Beggars Group, Cooking Vinyl, Domino, Epitaph, Kobalt Label Services, Merge, Ninja Tune, [PIAS], Secretly Group and Warp Records.
Drawing on anonymised responses from Merlin members across 26 countries, the survey highlights FOUR clear trends:
With 82% of respondents feeling “optimistic” about the future of their business, these findings correlate with analysis of Merlin’s own internal data – which reveals a 43% increase in year-on-year revenues (April 2014-March 2015) to $137.8m.
In March 2015 alone, audio tracks by Merlin members were streamed more than 2.5bn times – an increase of over 1bn from the same period last year.
Significantly, analysing over 9 billion audio streams (January-April 2015) usage of Merlin members’ repertoire on audio streaming and subscription services was 35% higher on paid tiers compared to free ad-funded tiers.
86.6% of respondents stated that Merlin membership was important to their business.
Charles Caldas, CEO of Merlin, said: “The Merlin membership survey again shows how strongly the world’s leading independent labels are faring in the global digital market. This year’s results highlight the speed at which music fans are transitioning towards streaming and subscription services, and how independent labels are leading that change, and growing their audience in the process – with the vast majority growing their digital revenues and expanding their business overall.”
About Merlin
Merlin is the global rights agency for the independent label sector. The organisation’s members command around a 10% share of the US and global recorded music markets and embody more than 20,000 independent record labels and distributors worldwide, representing some of the world’s most important artists, including:
Merlin acts to ensure these companies have effective access to new and emerging revenue streams and that their rights are appropriately valued and protected. Since commencing operations in May 2008, Merlin has licensed key digital services including YouTube Music Key, Spotify, Pandora, Beats Music, Google Play, Rdio and Deezer and reached a number of high value copyright infringement settlements on behalf of its members with, amongst others, Limewire, XM Satellite Radio and Grooveshark.
Merlin has offices in London, with a head office in Amsterdam.