Securing a better deal for musicians by merging copyright collectives

How can we join two organisations together to achieve their mission more efficiently?

PPL and PRS, two music copyright collectives collecting and distributing money on behalf of performers, record labels, and songwriters, approached us to help them complete a joint venture. They wanted to reduce the repetition of premises license contracts across their two businesses, to free up resources to collect and to pay more fees to artists and performers quicker. This was a high profile venture in the industry, involving implementing new technology and processes, and merging teams across the businesses.

We brought our best experts, rallied stakeholders, and got the project back on track

The client’s steering group, including the CEOs, CFOs and CIOs from both PPL and PRS asked us to join the project halfway through, to manage two further consultancies running the technology and process change elements. The programme was facing challenges and needed oversight to get it back on track. We allocated a Baringa partner as a full-time programme director and produced realistic transformation plans to deliver the project. We helped the clients to secure new premises, embed new technology, migrate data and plan for the switch to the new system, which had to be completed without a hitch.

On joining the project, we could see the need for us to act as a broker and facilitator, spotting gaps and aligning goals across not only two clients but multiple suppliers too. We reviewed the timelines and allocated a Baringa team member to be responsible for managing the migration and launch plan. We joined the clients’ steering group to track progress, advising both clients and balancing occasionally diverging opinions on the way forward. We brought a small but senior team from across Baringa with the right experience and skills to deliver the project and embedded them with supplier and client teams to drive the project to conclusion.

More money to the music makers

With the programme now finished, PPL and PRS are now running their collections operations as a fully established joint venture. With simpler, joined up processes, they’re collecting and distributing more license fees for musicians. Not only for the Ed Sheerans of this world, but for everyone involved in creating and performing the music we all know and love. With this improved system, we’ve helped edge the industry to a more sustainable footing.

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