Sacem 2022 results : a record breaking-year despite a contrasted environment

With the end of the Covid crisis, which saw Sacem's general royalty collections fall by nearly 350 million euros, 2022 was the year concerts and festivals returned, media advertising revenues recovered — particularly audiovisual — and, above all, the online sector continued its strong growth. Online now accounts for more than a third of Sacem's collected revenues for its members and creators and publishers represented through mandates.

With this rebound, the amounts allocated to all rightholders reached €1,056 million, up 19% on 2021.

But it is above all in collections, and particularly in the second half of the year, that Sacem's performance is evident, reaching a record level of €1,413 million, up 34% on 2021.

For the second year in a row, the digital sector was the leading source of royalties, surging 38% compared with 2021, to €493 million. This trend reflects changes in how cultural goods are consumed, but above all illustrates the expertise developed by Sacem in the collection and management of digital rights, in France and abroad, both for its members and for the organisations that entrust Sacem with mandates to collect their digital rights. Sacem processed 275 trillion streams and downloads in 2022.

More than 390,000 songwriters, composers and music publishers around the world were paid for the distribution of their works.

These performances demonstrate the success and of acceleration of Sacem 3.0 strategy.

Strategically, 2022 was a real "springboard year" for the transformation of Sacem's business model. Last year, Sacem was able to take advantage of the technological and regulatory changes affecting the creative sector to offer better support to members, societies that entrust it with mandates and employees. Sacem renewed agreements, launched new services (Musicstart, etc.) and was chosen to manage neighbouring rights for publishers and press agencies.

In its effort to compete with new entrants on the market and maintain its edge, Sacem made controlling spending a priority and reduced its management cost to 11.65% of income from 14.8% in 2021. At the same time, Sacem limited cost-to-income ratio on rights holders to 10.4%.

Nevertheless, this fine recovery and the transformation underway at Sacem should not make us forget the more worrying situation certain creators are facing. Not everyone benefited from the strong growth in digital, a sector where a chosen few receive much of the revenue. Aware of these disparities, Sacem works tirelessly to maximize the number of sources of royalties for all its members, while creating the conditions to generate new revenue streams. And in 2023, taking into account collections in the second half of 2022 and the first half of 2023, we expect to reach a new distribution record.

In addition, Sacem continued to deploy what constitutes the very heart of its DNA, supporting its members, whether through social protection, training, or cultural action. Over the course of 2022, almost 5,000 grants were paid out jointly by Sacem and the Comité du Cœur Sacem as part of the emergency fund for authors and publishers in serious difficulty, for a total amount of €3.9 million.

Sacem was more motivated than ever to offer creators the best conditions for making a living from their art. In 2022, Sacem continued to strengthen its grass roots activities and pursued its commitment to the dissemination and promotion of creation and music: 3,375 projects received support through cultural action and aid programmes, for an amount of €29.2 million mainly thanks to the 25% from private copying. Whether large or small, media-oriented, or more intimate, and whatever their genre, the projects Sacem supported all had a common vocation: to let creativity thrive in all its diversity.

Serge Perathoner, composer, arranger, and Chairman of Sacem's Board of Directors said: "The rapid and constant evolution of the music ecosystem, combined with the possibilities offered by new technologies, have had a considerable impact on the way we create, distribute and consume music. They have opened up new territory, while at the same time creating space for a new era of development for Sacem. Never before have Sacem's costs been so tightly under control. The strength of our tools and our expertise in authors’ rights management have enabled us to optimise the value works generate by redistributing more revenue to creators and publishers. For the first time in its history, our society distributed almost one billion euros to authors, composers and publishers who have placed their trust in us. Transformed and battle-ready, Sacem is armed to seek even greater value for its members. »

Cécile Rap-Veber, CEO of Sacem, said: "Thanks to the resumption of concerts, the explosion of digital, the new agreements signed with the many users of Sacem's repertoire, and the strategic shift undertaken in its transformation plan, Sacem had a record year in terms of both collections and royalties distributed. These results demonstrate, once again, our ability to adapt and strengthen our expertise in a highly competitive and rapidly changing sector. As a key local, international, and digital player, we want to go further with a Sacem 3.0 that is even closer to and more supportive of its members, more proactive and more innovative, while controlling its costs. We still face many challenges for the future of creation: securing financial resources for public broadcasting and the National Music Centre, the defence of private copying levies, the establishment of a more equitable music streaming ecosystem for creators and publishers, the fight against "buy-outs,” and the regulation of artificial intelligence. Sacem will be at the forefront, defending the rights and revenues of its members and partners as we face all these challenges."

2022 in figures:

• €1.4134 billion collected (+34% vs 2021) of which
                 €492.6 million in online revenues (+38%)
                 €353.1 million for TV/Radio/providers (+19%)
                 €327.0 million in general royalties (+93%)
  
  
• 390,000 authors, composers and publishers worldwide paid for the broadcast of their works.
  
  
• €1.056 billion distributed (+19%) to creators, music publishers and Sacem's constituents around the world.
  
  
• A ratio of operating expenses to collections of 11.65%, down 3.15 points compared to 2021; this is the lowest rate ever achieved and illustrates Sacem's overall ability to control costs and increase productivity.
  
  
• Fees for the cost of operating the society amounted to 10.4%, a historically low rate that compares to 12.0% in 2019.
  
  
• More than 14,100 new members worldwide joined last year with 24.5% of whom under 25 years old. They passed the 210,000 mark.
  
  
• Almost 5,000 members helped via the Support Fund and the Comité du Cœur Sacem (€3.9 million in 2022), thanks to the 25% from private copying, proof of Sacem's daily commitment to all its members. In this context, 17.32M€ were distributed since the beginning of the pandemic.

• In 2022, more than 3,375 projects supported by Sacem’s Cultural Action for an amount of €29.9 million, mainly thanks to the 25% from private copying.
  
  
• 275 trillion streams and downloads processed in 2022

2022 highlights:

• The signing of new agreements with the American and Hungarian collective management organisations (ASCAP and Artisjus), the company Hipgnosis and the renewal of our agreements with Meta, TikTok and Deezer show the acceleration of our international development and the strengthening of our position as the world leader in digital copyright management in the service of the greatest international artists.
  
  
• The creation of the URights subsidiary, the launch of the Musicstart service and the agreement with Pianity for the launch of its first collection of NFTs demonstrate the strengthening of Sacem’s innovation strategy and its ability to develop technology that can anticipate new modes and new universes of consumption of cultural goods (Web3, Metaverse, etc.). All as part of the effort to generate new sources of value for creators.
  
  
• Increasingly personalised, simple, and accessible services for our members, with the extension of online membership, the acceleration of distribution, better granularity in the distribution sheets allowing a fine-tuned view of the use of each work, collaboration opportunities and offers for our members via the Sacem Plus community platform.
  
  
• Internally: the Social Affairs Department has become the "Social Protection and Training Department", to provide better support for creators and publishers throughout their careers, and a new Department of Communication, Public Relations and Commitment has been created to ensure the consistency of Sacem's statements to its various stakeholders and to accelerate the company's CSR strategy.

For more information, see the 2022 annual report or our dedicated website !