Phonographic Performance Limited

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Phonographic Performance Limited, or PPL is the London-based UK music industry service company which licenses recorded music on behalf of over 3,500 record companies and 40,000 performers. The company collects domestic and international broadcast/new media revenues and public performance income which is then distributed and paid to its record company and performer members. These include featured artists as well as all session musicians, ranging from, for example, orchestral players to percussionists and to singers.

PPL is a not-for-profit company, acting as it does for and on behalf of all its members. All income, after running costs, is distributed amongst the member companies and performers whose tracks have been either broadcast, included in new media services or played in public. PPL's other areas of operations include, amongst others, VPL, CatCo and Music Mall.

PPL, together with the Musicians' Union in the UK, enforced the "needle time" regulations which restricted the amount of air time that could be devoted to commercial recordings on the BBC. These limitations had an impact on the development of radio in the UK, including pirate radio, and even led to the distinctive sound of the Peel Sessions, as radio presenter John Peel preferred to fill the absence of commercial records with live music rather than talk.