IMRO pays out €40m to artists in royalties

The payout in royalties follows IMRO enjoying record revenues of €45.81m in 2023.

The royalty amount is a €4.7m increase on the €35.5m payout for 2022.

In her accompanying statement, IMRO chairperson Eleanor McEvoy said the organisation had produced “excellent results”.

“2023 saw a huge growth of membership in IMRO, with our membership currently standing at almost 25,000,” she said.

In their report, the directors, who include Something Happens frontman and Newstalk presenter Tom Dunne, state that “the strong performance of multi-territorial, domestic online and overseas revenue, due to the performance of the repertoire and the addition of new writers, was supplemented by the continuing buoyant concert market, up 27pc on the prior year”.

CEO Victor Finn said revenues for 2023 had reached an all-time high of €45.8m and was “a healthy increase” of 8pc on the €42.5m revenues of 2022.

He said costs for the year amounted to €6.2m, down by €603,000, or 9pc, in the financial year.

During 2023, total royalties paid by IMRO to the directors and to parties related to the directors of IMRO amounted to €3.4m. This was a sharp increase on the €2.37m paid out in 2022.

IMRO last year recorded a pre-tax loss of €1.3m. This was mainly due to a non-cash charge of €1.58m that arose from the completion of a buy-out of the legacy defined benefit scheme.

“The buy-out secures the pensions of past employees through the purchase of annuities and eliminates three key risks to the company associated with maintaining a defined benefit pension scheme pension: investment, inflation and longevity risks,” said a note attached to the accounts.

The loss last year also takes account of combined non-cash depreciation and amortisation costs of €721,397.

Numbers employed last year increased from 49 to 56 while wage and salaries rose from €3m to €3.47m.

Pay to six members of key management personnel, including pension contributions, totalled €983,190 last year.