“Dutch music makers earn record amount in 2022 despite pandemic, according to BumaStemra’s annual figures”

After two gloomy corona years, Dutch music makers earned another record amount last year. Lyricists, composers and publishers of songs received more than 239 million euros from BumaStemra. This is evident from the annual figures of the organization that manages the copyrights of approximately 38,000 Dutch music makers.

The amount paid out is not only much more than in the corona years, but is even almost 50 million higher than in the last year before the pandemic. In an explanation, director Bernard Kobes of BumaStemra speaks of a record year.

In corona times, musicians earned almost nothing for a long time from performances and playing their music in cafes and other entertainment venues. At the time, Buma Cultuur even called on radio stations to play as much music from their own soil as possible.

After the end of the lockdowns, music lovers flocked to the stages again. With licenses for more than 45,000 performances, BumaStemra’s income from live music increased “spectacularly”. More music was also made. Last year, 2000, mainly young new musicians and songwriters joined BumaStemra as members. Of the new members, 40 percent are younger than 25 years.

It is remarkable that the income from online also continued to grow. According to BumaStemra, this is due to improved agreements with platforms such as Netflix, YouTube and Tiktok. In addition, an agreement was concluded with Snapchat for the first time. Partly because of this, the export value of Dutch music doubled compared to the corona years.