SONG publisher C2W Music posted its first net profit since listing on the Jamaica Stock Exchange (JSE) some two years ago.

The net income of US$16,600 for the three months to June 30 primarily resulted from management foregoing their salaries.

They also avoided jet-setting to regional songwriting workshops during the quarter.

The start-up started to earn royal payments during the three-month period.

“The company is happy to announce that we have started to recognise revenue,” said C2W CEO Ivan Berry. “For this quarter, the company earned US$30,189 in revenue.”

C2W expects to derive future royalties from songs written for charting reggae singers, Berry indicated in his statement to shareholders which accompanied the latest financials.

“The company continues to exploit our own catalogue and continues to have success in this area,” he said. “We are also proud and happy to know that the Maxi Priest album is doing very well with two of our songs on the album, and the Etana album is heating up to be a success story, also.”

He also thanked his staff and shareholders for their “patience” in believing in an initiative as “groundbreaking” as C2W.

C2W Music, the only music publisher listed on the Junior Market of the JSE, began as a start-up void of any revenues.

Its model seeks to earn income from licencing songs in its catalogue to known artistes. The sale or use of these songs would then provide returns to C2W in the form of royalty payments.

The company stated that it negotiated an extremely strategic joint venture music publishing deal with one of its songwriters and an extremely successful music publisher, Rebellion Corps/Notting Hill Music.

“In this joint venture, they will help us in securing homes for more of our copyrights, which will result in increased revenue for the company,” said Berry. “The company continues to work closely with the Caribbean performing rights societies to recognise our rightful revenue, as their new royalty distribution systems are now in place.”

Its cash and equivalents however continue to dwindle with just under US$2,000 remaining from some US$14,300 a year earlier, financials indicate.

In May 2012, the company raised roughly US$1.4 million from investors and also received a 10-year tax break as a consequence of listing on the Junior Market in June of that year.

The company posted nine consecutive quarters of losses.

Its total equity position declined to US$34,000 from roughly US$337,500 a year earlier. It took under two years for the company to burn through much of the US$1.47 million it raised on the JSE.