Music and gaming: Q&A with Graham Best, Licensing Manager at PRS
Earlier this year, Graham Best joined PRS for Music as the new Licensing Manager. We sat down with him to discuss his publishing background, knowledge of the gaming industry and how he aims to engage directly with publisher members.
If you have any questions you’d like to ask Graham, get in touch with your Relationship Manager.
If you have any questions you’d like to ask Graham, get in touch with your Relationship Manager.
I’ve worked in the music industry, with a particular focus on music rights, commercial licensing and digital platforms since 2006. I was lucky to get my start with record label and publishing company, Fabric in London. I worked across licensing, A&R and sync pitching, which is how I got introduced to the major video game developers and platforms.
In 2011, I swapped sides to work as a music supervisor on the London Olympics, before heading back into the publishing world at the label and publishing arm of Rinse FM, who were then fresh off the success of acts like Katy B and Magnetic Man. In 2013, I co-founded Featherstone Music, an independent publisher with a focus on writers and artists emerging from UGC platforms, which I ran alongside my work with a YouTube focussed label called NCS (NoCopyrightSounds) which focused on making music accessible to content creators. I then joined the US music tech company Songtradr in early 2021 to work across UGC and inhouse catalogue development before joining PRS in Spring of this year.
The two biggest factors in deciding to join PRS were the role itself – I’ve been fascinated by the untapped potential of music and videogames for a very long time – and the evolution of the organisation and its culture. Having had a fair bit of exposure to the organisation as a rightsholder, the level PRS now operates at and the environment it provides to its staff has developed enormously over the last few years.
In 2011, I swapped sides to work as a music supervisor on the London Olympics, before heading back into the publishing world at the label and publishing arm of Rinse FM, who were then fresh off the success of acts like Katy B and Magnetic Man. In 2013, I co-founded Featherstone Music, an independent publisher with a focus on writers and artists emerging from UGC platforms, which I ran alongside my work with a YouTube focussed label called NCS (NoCopyrightSounds) which focused on making music accessible to content creators. I then joined the US music tech company Songtradr in early 2021 to work across UGC and inhouse catalogue development before joining PRS in Spring of this year.
The two biggest factors in deciding to join PRS were the role itself – I’ve been fascinated by the untapped potential of music and videogames for a very long time – and the evolution of the organisation and its culture. Having had a fair bit of exposure to the organisation as a rightsholder, the level PRS now operates at and the environment it provides to its staff has developed enormously over the last few years.
It’s been a fantastic experience. The Commercial team is a wonderfully sharp group to work with and are a source of encyclopaedic knowledge around licensing precedents. Clarity of purpose is something I value a great deal , and PRS’ role within the industry – to assert the value of music and ensure writers and rightsholders are renumerated accordingly – will always be something I find incredibly motivating.
In terms of surprises there are two that stick out. The continued lack of understanding between the video game industry and the music industry is striking. Historically, it’s fair to say that the video game industry, in common with a lot of other industries, has been a little wary of the complexity of music rights, while the music industry has sometimes taken a fairly short-term view towards the video games sector. I’d hope that this role and our work going forward can counteract a lot of the misconceptions on both sides. The second (very pleasant!) – surprise has been the depth of talent internally at PRS. The level of expertise across the organisation is mind-blowing , and an amazing asset to have access to.
In terms of surprises there are two that stick out. The continued lack of understanding between the video game industry and the music industry is striking. Historically, it’s fair to say that the video game industry, in common with a lot of other industries, has been a little wary of the complexity of music rights, while the music industry has sometimes taken a fairly short-term view towards the video games sector. I’d hope that this role and our work going forward can counteract a lot of the misconceptions on both sides. The second (very pleasant!) – surprise has been the depth of talent internally at PRS. The level of expertise across the organisation is mind-blowing , and an amazing asset to have access to.
Primarily, I believe it’s a question of bandwidth and engagement. Most people in the business are familiar with the scale of the video game industry and the revenue it generates, but there’s been limited licensing precedent. As a consequence, video game licensing has traditionally been grouped alongside other digital platforms, SVOD etc, so the resources for sector engagement were stretched quite thin. The creation of this role will change that.
Fundamentally, I hope publishers will see an increase in long term revenue generated via our platform licences – my role is with the commercial team after all! Beyond that I also see a huge opportunity to share knowledge and drive innovation around the intersection of music and video games. Put another way, if you’re a large publisher reading this and working on your video game strategy, reach out and let’s have a chat.
The video game industry is an incredibly fast evolving space, particularly in terms of monetisation and audience development and retention. Given the economic scale and cultural significance of the market it’s essential that rights holders and PRS have a voice in that evolution.
The immediate priority is accelerating the development of licence negotiations with the leading digital platforms – we need to continue building long term commercial relationships with multiple stakeholders across the home console and PC gaming space. Beyond those core platforms, separating signal from noise around Metaverse platforms is fundamental to continued growth. As Metaverse titles start to pivot further away from traditional videogame models, establishing a new framework for music licensing will be essential.
Our main goal is to implement a holistic strategy that brings the video game industry and the music industry into a mutually beneficial, long term collaborative relationship. Fundamental to that is establishing a sustainable licensing framework across the primary platforms – this requires a pragmatic approach to establishing the value of our members’ repertoire while also preserving the long-term viability of the PRS repertoire on those platforms. Outside of commercial music licensing, there’s a huge community of video game composers creating bespoke soundtracks for games at every level. Engaging with those composers and understanding the challenges they face and how we can support them is crucial to our integration with the video game industry.
Finally, industry outreach and education will be key. The previously mentioned lack of education around music rights is an opportunity to engage with video game industry stakeholders and help them understand the opportunities for the music they own. There are multiple video game developers out there with catalogues of rights that date back 40+ years and are beloved by millions. If we can help them access the value in those catalogues by participating in the CMO system (perhaps via admin partnerships with some of our larger member) I’d consider that an enormous win for both industries.
Finally, industry outreach and education will be key. The previously mentioned lack of education around music rights is an opportunity to engage with video game industry stakeholders and help them understand the opportunities for the music they own. There are multiple video game developers out there with catalogues of rights that date back 40+ years and are beloved by millions. If we can help them access the value in those catalogues by participating in the CMO system (perhaps via admin partnerships with some of our larger member) I’d consider that an enormous win for both industries.
