At Tuesday's AIMP Indie Music Publishing Summit in NYC, the Association of Independent Music Publishers and Massarsky Consulting Inc. presented critical insights on the current state of the independent music publishing industry. 

Key findings from President of the AIMP New York Chapter, Alisa Coleman and President of Massarsky Consulting, Barry Massarsky's presentation included:

• Verification that performance royalties remain an independent music publisher’s chief source of income, accounting (in actual revenue from a segment of the independent sector) for 50% of revenue in 2018 vs. the ever-increasing streaming and shrinking digital download and physical mechanical revenue, which was 32% combined. Synchronization revenue also grew to 19% of revenue, up from 16% in 2017.

• Terrestrial radio remains the largest source of performance revenue for independent music publishers, accounting for 38% of performance royalties vs. 34% from streaming audio. Of the four most important genres for independent music publishers (country, pop, pop standards, R&B/hip-hop), both country and pop brought in about three-quarters of their total performance income from terrestrial radio in 2018.

• Independent music publishers can look to the Latin and rock genres as potential growth areas, with Latin bringing in 93% of its performance revenue from terrestrial radio in 2018 and rock split nearly equally between terrestrial radio (41%) and streaming audio (40%).

• Songs over two years old accounted for over half (52.9%) of all terrestrial radio spins in 2018, up 3.6% from 2016. Spins for current songs (under two years old or still on the charts) fell 4.1% over the same time period.

“Our data shows that terrestrial radio remains a major source of revenue for independent music publishers. And while music is also key to terrestrial radio, the amount stations pay out in licensing fees is a blip in their overall operating expenses,” said Massarsky. “As such, independent publishers should not hesitate to join the call for a performance right for master recordings, updated consent decrees, and other reforms that will help make performance royalties equitable for the entire industry.”

Prepared by Massarsky Consulting Inc., data on music publisher revenue was sourced from a representative group of music publishers. For more info on the Summit, visit www.aimpsummit.com.