Note: Copyright law is technical and uses terms and concepts with which most people are not familiar. PRS tries to explain the legal requirement in clear terms for its customers. Please refer to the Copyright, Designs and Patents Acts 1988 for full details or seek independent legal advice.
1. Start at the beginning…
When a song or piece of music is written, the person who wrote it owns the copyright and therefore has the right to decide how and when it should be played. Music is released, allowing individuals to purchase a song which they can play at home. However, if an individual then wishes to play that song to a wider group of people (for example on their business or organisation’s premises) it is classed as a ‘public performance’. If you want to make a ‘public performance’ you must first seek permission from the copyright owner of that song before you do so. This permission is known as a licence.
2. Who or what is PRS?
PRS stands for the Performing Right Society. The ‘public performance right’ is one of the elements of copyright.
PRS is a not-for-profit membership organisation which collects licence fees from music users, and distributes these as royalties to writers and publishers of music from the UK and around the world.
By law, under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 (as amended), if you play (perform) copyright music in public (i.e. outside of your home or domestic life), you must first obtain permission from the owner of the copyright in every piece of music that you intend to play. This means you would have to contact potentially thousands of music writers, composers and publishers worldwide to obtain their agreement to play their songs in your business or organisation.
To make things easy, PRS was set up (in 1914) in the UK by songwriters, composers and music publishers to manage these rights on their behalf.
Organisations like PRS exist in almost every country in the world. PRS has reciprocal agreements with many of these organisations, allowing us to license the use of their music in the UK.
A PRS Music Licence permits you to play over 10 million pieces of music, from the UK and around the world.
3. What is a ‘public performance’?
Music is performed ‘in public’ when it is performed outside what could be regarded as the domestic circle or home life. This includes music performances – of live and recorded music or music from TV and radio – in premises from concert halls to corner shops.
For example, the composer’s audience in a workplace would be people at work, whether in an office or staff canteen, a factory or the kitchen of a restaurant. A workplace is obviously not a domestic environment and therefore a PRS Music Licence is required if PRS music is being used.
4. What does PRS do for its members?
PRS is a not-for-profit membership society. Music creators – writers, composers, publishers – join PRS and give us permission to license to use of their music. PRS issues licences on their behalf to premises and events all over the UK.
All licence fees collected are distributed as royalty payments to our 60,000 members and to our affiliated societies worldwide. PRS only deducts its administration costs.
Many of our members are small businesses who rely on their income from royalties.
5. How does PRS know who to pay?
Where possible PRS will ask for the full details of what music is being played – for concert venues we ask that details of all the music being performed are supplied, enabling direct distribution straight to the right-holders of the music. In addition, we get detailed information from most TV and radio broadcasters.
With smaller businesses, such as hairdressers, restaurants, shops and pubs – music researchers collect details of music use from a continually changing selection of premises. From these details we calculate what proportion of the money to pay each member.
View more information about how we distribute our members’ royalties.
6. What does PRS do for the music users?
Music users require permission from the rights holder of every piece of music they want to play. Collecting societies, like PRS, exist to simplify the arrangement between the millions of music-users who require permission and the music creators who can provide a licence.
By obtaining a PRS licence and paying the appropriate fee, a music user can legally use any copyright music that PRS controls – which means just about all the copyright music in the world!
7. Is a PRS licence required by law?
Yes. The Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 states that if you use copyright music in public, you must first obtain the permission of every writer or composer of the music you intend to play. PRS represents these copyright owners and so a PRS licence gives you the legal permission to play any copyright music controlled by PRS. A PRS licence is required regardless of the ownership of any other type of licence.
8. Why do I need a PRS Music Licence?
A PRS Music Licence is required whenever there is a public performance of PRS-controlled copyright music. You need to obtain a PRS Music Licence covering all public performances of PRS-controlled copyright music in your premises or at your sites or events.
9. What music is PRS-controlled?
The majority of copyright music from the UK, and around the world, is controlled by PRS in the UK. This includes everything from advertising jingles to entire symphonies.
A PRS Music Licence grants you the legal permission to play millions of songs, saving you the time and money needed to gain permission from the music creators directly.
When a music-creator becomes a member of PRS, they give PRS exclusive permission to license the public performance of their works. Therefore, you can’t get a licence to play those works from anyone else.
10. How many people make up an audience?
The composer’s audience isn’t just people sat in an audience at a formal concert. Their audience includes anyone listening to their music outside the domestic circle or home life.
There is no statutory minimum of people required to constitute an audience. However, in some cases, PRS does not charge a licence fee to workplaces with a single (lone) worker.
11. Who decides how much PRS should charge for a licence?
PRS currently has over 40 tariffs applying to different types of premises and events. The tariffs take into account the nature and extent of music use in different premises and events.
PRS and its members can determine the fee for their licence. However, wherever possible, PRS agrees its charges with national trade associations or representative bodies from particular sectors.
In addition, PRS tariffs and the terms and conditions of its licences are subject to referral to and scrutiny by the Copyright Tribunal.
12. Who has to have a PRS Music Licence?
Any location or premises, outside of home, where music is played from clubs to concert halls, from discos to dentists’ waiting rooms and from trains to takeaways. The owner/proprietor of the premises is normally responsible for obtaining a PRS Music Licence for the public performance of copyright music.
13. What happens if I don’t obtain a PRS Music Licence?
If you do not obtain a PRS Music Licence, the performance of copyright music in public would be unauthorised and may constitute an infringement of copyright within the meaning of the Copyright Designs and Patents Act 1988 (as amended). PRS takes all reasonable steps to assist a music-user in applying for a PRS Music Licence. However, if a music-user does not obtain a licence, PRS may take legal action for infringement of the performing right. You may have to pay costs and damages if PRS has to take legal action.