Annual Review 2023: A Year of Progress

“2023 was a year of several development projects. We constantly develop the systems we use in terms of their functionality and additional features,” says Ilmo Laevuo in the Managing Director’s review.
“In the past year, we continued developing VRDB and RDx data hub integrations and operational processes, implemented the ISNI identifiers, and built automation-enabled communication systems,” says Laevuo.

“Of course, new technology also brings cost-related challenges. In addition to development costs, increasingly high-performing systems also increase maintenance costs.” summarises Laevuo.

Remuneration collected at a stable level

The remuneration collected for the use of music in 2023 amounted to EUR 26.05 million.

The largest revenues came from the background music sector (10.15 million), radio and television use (8.05 million) and Internet and data network (4.7 million). In particular, remuneration collected from background music operators increased compared to 2022.

Gramex had an effective administrative expense ratio of 15.2% that illustrates the efficiency of its operations. When including the 1.5% return on investment paid out to rightsholders, Gramex’s operations had a total expense ratio of 13.7%.

Four distributions

Thanks to its technological development, Gramex was able to pay out remuneration collected for music use quarterly for the first time in its history. Most of the remuneration was paid to the rightsholders, i.e. music performers and producers, already in the same calendar year.

The total amount of remuneration paid was €21.5 million. Of this, €9.3 million went to music performers and €12.2 million to producers.

The share of remuneration collected from abroad was temporarily lower than year before due to the carry-over of some remuneration to 2024. EUR 690 000 was collected abroad and EUR 2.18 million was paid to societies abroad.

For the Music

During the year, Gramex rebranded and launched a completely redesigned website, taking digital customer service and communication to a new level. As part of the renewal, the printed GramexPress was completely converted into a fully digital media.

Gramex also actively lobbied for the music sector. The priorities for 2023 were to influence the government programme, to promote the economic value of the cultural and music sector and to bring the cultural sector’s perspective to the debate on government fiscal adjustments and changes in unemployment benefits.

The lobbying work was carried out partly as part of Luovat and partly in cooperation between music sector organisations.