PRS membership categories

Our PRS membership categories determine your right to attend and vote at the Annual General Meeting (AGM) and the number of votes you’re entitled to. They also determine whether you’re eligible to stand to become a Council Member on the Members’ Council  and nominate other members to stand.

There are four categories of PRS membership:

1. Standard
2. Voting
3. Voting Plus
4. Principal Voting

The below table shows more information on the differences between the categories:

Your category is decided by your length of membership, PRS royalty earnings and the extent to which these earnings meet, or exceed, certain financial thresholds which are explained below.

When joining, you’ll be admitted as a Standard member, but you can qualify for promotion to Voting, Voting Plus or Principal Voting membership in a future year after our yearly promotion process which is overseen by the Council.

The financial thresholds are set by the Members' Council and approved by members in a general meeting. The thresholds are fixed and adjusted every year in line with the percentage change in RPI (retail price index) published in December for the previous years.

Standard membership

If you’re a new member, or a member whose royalty earnings don’t meet the criteria for promotion to Voting or Principal Voting member, you’re known as a Standard member.

Voting membership

You can be promoted to be a Voting member if your total royalty earnings in the previous one to three years are equal or more than the following amounts:

If at any time during that period you were a member of an affiliated society, the total will include royalties paid by us to that society.

To become a Voting member, you must have been a member of PRS or an affiliated society for at least a year.

If you are a successor member, you will automatically be admitted as a Voting member.

Voting Plus membership

As approved by members at the 2024 AGM, a new class of Voting Plus Member will have 5 votes in a Ballot to determine the eligibility of writer candidates for appointment to the Members’ Council. As writer members are the only members entitled to vote in the Ballot for Writer Council Members, membership of the new class will be limited to writer members.

The approved qualifying criteria for promotion to this category is the mid-point between the Voting Membership and Principal Voting Membership.

Principal Voting membership

You can be promoted to be a Principal Voting member if your royalty earnings meet the financial threshold for two of PRS’ three preceding financial years. Your earnings must be equal to or more than the following amounts for each year:

For example, you would need to reach this threshold in 2023 and either 2021 or 2022 as well. If at any time during that period you were a member of an affiliated society, the total will include royalties paid by us to that society.

Once you are a Principal Voting member, you will remain one regardless of if your royalty earnings dip below the financial thresholds shown above.

Additional voting rights of Principal Voting membership

As a Principal Voting member, you can be eligible for an additional 10 votes in a poll or ballot if your total royalty earnings are equal to or above the following amounts (depending on your joining date):

The eligibility for these additional 10 votes is reviewed on a yearly basis.