A decade-long dispute over how Irish performers are paid when their recordings are played on radio, TV and in public has finally reached a full High Court hearing.
If you’ve played on a record that’s been aired on Irish radio, or soundtracked a pub, shop or gym, you’re owed money for it. How much of that money actually reaches performers is now the subject of an eight-week case in the High Court.
On Tuesday October 27th, Recorded Artists Actors Performers (RAAP), the body that collects and distributes royalties to more than 5,000 performers, opened its action against Phonographic Performance Ireland (PPI), the record labels’ collecting body, and the State. RAAP’s barrister told the court PPI’s system had “run roughshod” over the rights of Irish performers, the Irish Times reports.
Mary Black, her son Danny O’Reilly of The Coronas and her daughter Róisín O were in a packed courtroom for the opening day. Bell X1‘s Paul Noonan is among the witnesses due to give evidence.
Here’s what it’s all about.
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Where does this money come from?
Any business that plays recorded music publicly in Ireland, from broadcasters to bars, shops and venues, pays a licence fee. PPI collects those fees on behalf of the record companies that own the recordings.
Under Irish copyright law, the performers on those recordings are entitled to “equitable remuneration”, in practice a 50% share of the licence fee.
That’s separate from songwriting royalties, which go through IMRO and pay the people who wrote the song. This money in question is for the people who played and sang on the recording, whether that’s the frontperson or a session musician, and it comes out of the fee paid to the record labels’ body, PPI.
PPI is supposed to pass the performers’ share to RAAP, which distributes it to the performers.
- IMRO collects for the people who wrote the song: songwriters, composers and music publishers. This is the royalty on the composition.
- RAAP collects for the people who played or sang on the recording, from frontpeople to session musicians. This is the performer’s share.
- PPI collects for the record labels that own the recording itself. By law PPI is meant to pass the performers’ half of its licence fees to RAAP, which is what the case is about.
- So when a pub or radio station plays a track, it can owe fees on three layers: the composition (IMRO), the recording (PPI), and the performers’ share inside the recording fee (RAAP). A musician who wrote and played on a track can be paid through IMRO and RAAP separately. IMRO isn’t a party to this case.
What is RAAP claiming?
RAAP’s case centres on two changes PPI made.
The 2012 change to who qualifies. From 2002 to 2012, RAAP says, if a track qualified for payment, PPI passed on the full 50% performer share. A track qualified if, for example, even one member of the band was Irish.
From 2012, RAAP says PPI began assessing each performer individually. Take a four-piece band with one Irish member and three from outside the EU who recorded in the US. Before 2012, that track attracted the full performer share. Afterwards, RAAP says, the Irish member got a quarter of it and PPI kept the rest.
The 2016 attempt to replace RAAP. RAAP says PPI tried to cut it out in 2016 by appointing the UK’s Phonographic Performance Ltd (PPL) to manage Irish performers’ royalties instead. RAAP calls this an egregious breach of performers’ right to choose their own collecting organisation.
It also says it had real consequences. According to RAAP, PPL’s database failed to match some Irish acts to their own recordings, so money was withheld from performers including:
- The Boomtown Rats
- The Chieftains
- The Saw Doctors
- Joe Dolan
RAAP’s barrister pointed out that while the case papers include internationally famous names, most of RAAP’s members are working musicians, not the likes of Bono or Hozier.
How much money is involved?
RAAP claims that of around €13.8 million collected in licence fees from Irish businesses and broadcasters in 2024, only about €2.9 million was returned to performers. That’s roughly 21%, against the 50% performers were getting before the rules changed.
It’s a gap that has been consistent for years. In earlier proceedings, RAAP said around €11 million a year was collected in 2016 and 2017, with about €2 million paid to performers.
What does PPI say?
PPI denies any breach of performers’ rights. It says its approach is correct and in line with what it agreed with RAAP back in 2002, which RAAP will dispute in evidence.
PPI has also lodged a counterclaim, including a claim that RAAP owes it money. The State is a defendant but is not taking an active part in the hearing.
Why has it taken ten years?
RAAP first issued proceedings in 2016. Since then, the case has taken detours through appeals, disputes over the disclosure of documents and a trip to Europe.
- 2019: The High Court referred questions to the Court of Justice of the European Union, chiefly whether performers from outside the EU, such as Americans, are entitled to a share of Irish royalties. PPI’s position was that they were not. The Court of Appeal also ruled that year that how much performers are paid has to be agreed between PPI and RAAP.
- 2020: The CJEU ruled that EU countries cannot simply exclude performers from outside the EU from equitable remuneration. That decision is now widely known across Europe as the “RAAP” ruling.
- 2021: The High Court declared that the Irish Copyright Act does not properly implement a 2006 EU directive, because it does not give all performers on broadcast recordings a right to payment equal to that of the recording owners.
- 2026: The full hearing, in the Commercial Court before Judge Nessa Cahill, began on Tuesday October 27th and is expected to run for eight weeks.
Why does it matter?
For most Irish musicians, airplay and public performance money is one of the few royalty streams that pays reasonably, especially compared with streaming. If RAAP wins, a much bigger share of the money collected in Ireland could flow back to the people who actually made the recordings, from session players to bands who’ve been getting a fraction of what they’re due.
The case is also a reminder of something that comes up again and again in music industry panels: you won’t get paid if you don’t register. If you’ve performed on a commercially released recording, make sure you’re registered with RAAP.
The hearing continues.
Niall Byrne is the founder of the most-influential Irish music site Nialler9, where he has been writing about music since 2005. He is the co-host of the Nialler9 Podcast and has written for the Irish Times, Irish Independent, Sunday Times, Totally Dublin, Cara Magazine, Red Bull and more. Niall is a DJ, co-founder of Lumo Club, event curator, Indie Sleaze club promoter, and producer of gigs and monthly listening parties & events in Dublin.
