PRS for Music

PRS for Music, (formerly the Performing Right Society) is a royalty collection society that was founded in 1914. The organisation was formed in 1997 as the MCPS-PRS Alliance to bring together two collection societies: the Mechanical-Copyright Protection Society (MCPS) and Performing Right Society (PRS).^[1] The PRS for Music brand was adopted in 2009.

Wikinews has related news: Interview:PRS, the UK's music royalty collection service

Contents 1 Operations 2 Legal cases 3 Santiago Agreement 4 Schools 5 Enforcement 6 In popular culture 7 References 8 External links

[edit] Operations

When a piece of music is registered with PRS for Music it will allow a songwriter, composer or publisher to begin earning money when it is used. The organisation currently looks after about 10 million pieces of music. By joining PRS for Music a member will ensure they will be paid whenever their music is used. This could be when music is used on a radio station, a TV programme or advert or any business using music they’ve created such as shops and offices. All PRS for Music customers buy a licence that gives them the permission to play or use member's music. Music usage is then reported to PRS for Music in the form of radio playlists or television logs, live set lists from festivals and gigs etc and also sampling work to find out what businesses are using which music. This data is used to match up to what they have on record, and work out how much money should go to which writer.

In every country around the world there is a PRS for Music equivalent and they have representation deals in place to ensure that when music is used abroad they do a very similar job, ensuring the money gets paid to PRS for Music so they can pay their members. The organisation does the same thing when French, German or American music etc is used in the UK.

PRS For Music is a non-profit-making organisation. After operating costs are deducted (which in the past have averaged about 12% of turnover). The remaining money is distributed to the copyright holders (in the case of PRS for Music, these are the songwriters or the publishers with whom they have agreements). The owners of the copyright in the recording itself are served by an unrelated organisation (the PPL). So if, for example, a cover version of a song is played on BBC Radio 1, the PRS collects a fee on behalf of the writer and publisher while the PPL collects a fee on behalf of the record company whose recording is played.

The PRS exacts a range of tariffs from organisations (businesses, government organisations, educational establishments, and so on) dependent on their size and the extent to which they are using music, and whether they are commercial premises or not.

Around 350,000 UK businesses^{[citation needed]} have paid for a licence from the PRS, but some things do not need one:

• Inpatient and treatment areas in hospitals
• Medical day centres
• Residential homes (in most circumstances)
• Music used in divine worship (although licenses are required for copyrighted music)
• Civil wedding ceremonies and partnership ceremonies
• Lone and home workers.^[2]

In 2007 the PRS collected £562 million in fees, made up of Broadcasters and Online (£155 million), Physical Product (£152 million), public performance (£134 million) and international (£121 million).^[3]

In February 2010, PRS for Music announced its 2009 financial results which showed a modest 2.6% increase in revenue to £623m.

Business Area* 2009 (£m) Broadcasting & Online 177.4 International 166.9 Public Performance Sales 150.2 Recorded Media 128.5

Total 623.0

[edit] Legal cases

In 2007, the PRS took a Scottish car servicing company to court because the employees were allegedly "listening to the radio at work, allowing the music to be 'heard by colleagues and customers.'"^[4]

In June, 2008, the PRS accused 11 police stations, one of which is in Lancashire, of failure to obtain permits to play music, and seeks an injunction and payments for "damages".^[5]

[edit] Santiago Agreement

The Santiago Agreement was made in 2000 between 5 collecting societies including the UK's PRS and other European collecting agencies such as France's SACEM and Germany's GEMA. It intended to allow each agency to collect monies on behalf of members of the other agencies — e.g. the PRS would collect money for German artists listed with GEMA — but to restrict licenses to be sold only within the member organisation's home country. The European Commission decided in 2008 that the cross-licensing agreements formed by 24 collecting societies in Europe were in violation of anti-competition laws.^[6]

[edit] Schools

Along with the PPL group, PRS for Music use the Centre for Education and Finance Management (CEFM) as agents to collect licensing monies from schools and colleges. Universities have separate arrangements.

[edit] Enforcement

In 2008, PRS began a concerted drive to make commercial premises pay for annual "performance" licences. In one case it told a 61-year-old mechanic that he would have to pay £150 to play his radio while he worked by himself.^[7] It also targeted a bakery that played a radio in a private room at the back of the shop,^[8] a woman who used a classical radio to calm her horses^[9] and community centres that allowed children to sing carols in public.^[10] However, questions have been raised about the tactic of targeting small businesses:

"Radio stations pay large amounts of money to licensing organizations PRS and PPL for the music they play, and music has been on the radio for many years. During the war, there were programmes like Workers Playtime and Music While You Work. Now, many radio stations have features about workplaces. If the PRS force people to switch their radios off then how are these stations going to survive? Music has to be heard before people go out and buy it." (The Bolton News)^[11]

As BBC radio is publicly financed through the TV licence fee providing a service free of charge, further legal questions have arisen over the PRS's remit.

In March 2009, the on line video-sharing site YouTube removed all premium music videos for UK users, even those which had been supplied by record labels, due to a failure to find "mutually acceptable terms for a new licence" with the PRS.^[12][13] As a consequence, PRS established the Fair Play for Creators campaign in order to provide a forum in which musicians could "publicly demonstrate their concern over the way their work is treated by online businesses".^[14] David Arnold, Jazzie B, Billy Bragg, Guy Chambers, Robin Gibb, Pete Waterman, Mike Chapman, Wayne Hector, Pam Sheyne and Debbie Wiseman sent a letter to The Times newspaper in support of the campaign launched by PRS.^[15] A rights deal was settled in September 2009 between PRS and Google that allowed Youtube users in UK to view music videos.^[16]

Wiltshire Constabulary refused to pay PRS for a £32,000 license fee in April 2009. Instead the force told all officer and civilian staff that music could no longer be played in their workplaces but that ban excluded patrol cars. A total of 38 of 49 UK police forces currently hold PRS licences.^[17]

In October 2009, the PRS apologised to a 56-year-old shelf-stacker at a village in Clackmannanshire for pursuing her for singing to herself while stacking shelves.^[18][19] PRS initially told her that she would be prosecuted and fined thousands of pounds if she continued to sing without a "live performance" license. However PRS subsequently acknowledged its mistake.^[20]

[edit] In popular culture

• The Beautiful South's "Song For Whoever" has its protagonist loving "the PRS Cheques that you bring".

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• PRS for Music website
• Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988
• BBC article on PRS
• UK Federation of Small Businesses Blog discussing PRS interaction
• Information for rights holders on collection societies, particularly if they're worth joining.
• A little less complication: why Europe needs a new plan for music rights, October 23, 2008, World Media Law Report