Blanket Licences
To do this effectively PRS issues blanket licences authorising the use of any musical works from its world-wide repertoire.
The blanket licences are issued:
- to the owners of venues and premises using music, promoters of events with music, or owners of broadcasting services;
- for specific venues and premises using music, or for specific events with music, or for specific broadcasting services;
- lasting for a specific period, usually a year, but renewable as long as music continues to be used;
- charged at rates that reflect the extent of music use, and the value of music to the user.
- Although PRS collects revenue from hundreds of thousands of music users each year covering millions of individual performances, most of this revenue is 'pooled' as it has not been charged for individual performances.
Principles of PRS royalty distribution policy
accuracy
Licence income should be distributed to members with interests in the works performed. This is done wherever possible within the cost constraints of collecting and processing performance details.
equity
Costs of collecting and processing performance details for each revenue source should be recovered from that revenue source.
objectivity
Data selected to represent music use should be impartial, unbiased and statistically valid even when costs of collecting and processing details of performances mean that it is not practical to collect information about every individual performance licensed.
clarity
Distribution policies and data collection methods should be clear and capable of being easily explained to members and licensees.
efficiency
Royalties should be distributed as soon as possible following collection once appropriate performance details are available at a cost that does not exceed the proportion agreed for each revenue source.
Methods of using performance data for royalty distribution
pay per play - full returns of all music played
Where revenue is sufficient, PRS will distribute it to all the works performed. We’re increasing the number of pay per play distributions. Members now receive payment for every broadcast on over 140 TV and radio stations.
sample – a subset of returns of all the music played
In many cases the cost of collecting and processing details of all performances would be more than the revenue available. In these cases PRS collects information about some of the performances and uses that to represent all of them. These samples might be certain days in a broadcaster’s schedule, or certain concert events and are selected at random to reflect their overall value.
projection – returns of music from one source used to distribute another source
There are many uses of music, such as CDs and tapes for background music in shops and restaurants, where the actual value of each performance is probably only a few pence. In these cases it is too costly to create an effective sample. Instead PRS creates a statistical calculation of other music data based on a small survey of actual performances.