FUND'S MAIN ANNUAL DISTRIBUTION FOR 2022 IS $7,915,000
08/01/2022, V. Robert DiPaola - Fund Administrator,
(Below is a copy of this year's main annual distribution letter, which contains details related to the distribution and other information about the Fund.)
August 1, 2022
Dear Participating Musician:
We are pleased to enclose a check for your portion of the distribution from the Sound Recording Special Payments Fund (“Fund”) for the fiscal year ended April 30, 2022. Also enclosed, for your reference, is a statement of your reported scale wages, if any, for calendar year 2021. Please note, the check is only valid for ninety days from the issuance date, so you must cash or deposit it by October 29, 2022.
We are delighted to report that this year’s distribution is $7,915,000i, or almost 20% greater than last year’s. This increase resulted mainly from higher contributions on streamed sound recordings to the Fund from record companies.
Contributions on streamed sound recordings are up by more than 28% for each of the past two years. These contributions represented 75% of the total contributions this year, while contributions on physical sales, digital downloads and sound recordings licensed for new use in other media (e.g. television broadcasts) accounted for the remaining 25%. Streamed sound recordings are forecasted to continue to grow at about 12% per year through 2030ii, while the Fund expects contributions on other product types to continue to decline or have modest growth. The Fund projects that, as a result, virtually all contributions will be based on streamed sound recordings within a few years.
Recently, the Fund moved into a new smaller office with significantly lower rent than the old office. The significant rent savings from this move means more contribution dollars will be available to go to musicians. The new office is located at 150 East 52nd Street, Suite 24001, New York, NY, 10022; accordingly, please update your records.
As always, I encourage you to visit the Fund’s website, www.sound-recording.org, and if you haven’t already, please sign up as a registered user. Once registered, you can update your address, designate beneficiaries and submit direct deposit account information (U.S. banks only) all without having to contact the Fund. The website also remains the best place to get important information about the Fund and answers to your frequently asked questions.
Please also be sure to visit our “Do We Have Money For You?” webpage. There, you can search for your or your fellow musicians’ names to find out if you, or they, have unclaimed payments from any of the Fund’s three distributions (i.e. Main-annual, Traditional Music Video and Sampling).
Warmest regards,
V. Robert DiPaola
V. Robert DiPaola
Fund Administrator
i Below is a summary comparison of financial information related to the annual distributions for the fiscal years ended April 30, 2022 and 2021:
| 2022 | 2021 | ||
| Contributions | $ 10,601,000 | $ 8,873,000 | |
| Compliance audit collections | - | 324,000 | |
| Interest and investment income | 80,000 | 90,000 | |
| Unclaimed distributions | 120,000 | 206,000 | |
| Other Income | - | 74,000 | |
| Total | 10,801,000 | 9,567,000 | |
| | | | |
| General and administrative expenses | 1,857,000 | 2,030,000 | |
| Employer share of payroll taxes | 826,000 | 731,000 | |
| Reserves for capital expenditures | 203,000 | 171,000 | |
| Total | 2,886,000 | 2,932,000 | |
| Total distribution | $ 7,915,000 | $ 6,635,000 | |
| | | | |
| Total participants | 13,300 | 14,000 |
ii Per Goldman Sach’s “Music In The Air” report on the global music industry for 2022.