With record administrative expenditure of EC$513,000 for 2008, due in the main to expenditure on the purchase of the society’s head office at Sans Soucis, overdue payments of pension and medical plan for staff and payment of outstanding subscription fees, this might have ordinarily been a difficult time for members. However, although the society’s surplus revenue was only EC$73,000, the decision by Directors to use reserved funds and unidentified revenue pools meant that ECCO member were able to share amongst themselves a revenue pool of EC $150,000 with EC$75,000 leaving the country to pay foreign rights holders. A remarkable achievement by any measure.
CISAC’s Global Economic Report questioned some assumptions that have been perpetuated by speculation on the cultural industries. For example, the belief that live performances will compensate for declining record sales has not extended to royalties paid to creators. Although ticket prices have gone up, royalty collections for live performances haven’t changed. In addition, the digital market still only represents less than 1% of total collections; demonstrating legitimate digital services are still not yielding significant revenues.
Forecast for 2010 and beyond looks promising especially when members of the society start to reap the benefits of a larger licensing base which will eventually include the entire OECS territories. However, benefits are directly related to performances, therefore members must play their part in getting their works played in each territory. This means that they must produce music that broadcasters will be compelled to play voluntarily and also get involved in advocacy for increased local and regional content.

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