Royalties are music to ears of performers

Royalties paid to songwriters, composers and music publishers last year exceeded half a billion pounds for the first time in UK music history, rising 11 per cent to £527.6 million, thanks to the appeal of acts such as Ellie Goulding, Adele and James Bay.

Figures from the Performing Rights Society for Music, representing the rights of more than 125,500 music creators in the UK and two million worldwide, show a 89.9 per cent rise in revenues from online platforms in 2016.

While the share of revenues from digital downloads declined from 32 per cent in 2015 to 23 per cent in 2016, the streaming market share grew from 22 to 36 per cent.

The society said the rise was made possible by new technology that made it easier to track music use.