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It’s no secret that international royalties provide a major source of income for PRS for Music members in the increasingly globalised music market. Since the turn of the millennium, the society has seen revenues grow from £68m in 2000 to £188.2m in 2014 – with 2015 figures looking likely to reach well beyond that when they're published next month.
Karen Buse, executive director of membership and international, has been with the society since 1991. She has headed up the international department since 2003, overseeing revenue generation, inter-society relationships and international royalty collecting standards.
Now, as digital transforms the global industry and data volumes hit an all-time high, Karen and her team are delivering new strategies to stay ahead of the curve. Here, she tells us more…
PRS for Music has a strong performance record overseas – what’s behind this?
We have more than 100 years of experience and well established relationships with over 120 societies worldwide, representing more than 150 countries. These relationships take many years to build into trusting partnerships for the benefit of all our members – and they set us apart from newer collective management organisations which are having to build these relationships from scratch.
We collect around £200m annually for members from overseas countries; more than any other collecting society. This is because of the fantastic breadth and depth of our members’ repertoire. We’re hugely respected by our international partners, which puts us in a very strong position to affect change.
Our 30-strong multicultural, multilingual international team deserve a special mention here – they are held in high regard by their overseas counterparts, which helps enormously when looking after our members’ income abroad.
What does this mean for UK songwriters and composers?
Our members’ rights are now represented not only in all major markets but also in newer markets such as Macau, Mongolia and Mauritius. We believe we have the widest reach of any other collective management organisation. This means that any PRS for Music member can be rest assured that, when their music is performed - by any means – we will do our very best to collect royalties for those performances through our contractual relationships with other societies.
What sets PRS for Music apart in terms of protecting and growing members’ international royalties?
We’ve developed several bespoke tools and services over many years to help members track and claim their international royalties. We invest more than anyone else in data and tracking in foreign markets.
We negotiate improved service levels for our members to reduce costs and speed up turnaround times. We’re also committed to cross-checking and processing performance and royalty data from other societies to make absolutely sure that everything is accounted for, completely and accurately; not all societies do this level of cross-checking.
We have the largest international team of any society and that allows us to follow up on missing usages, unidentified usages and missing shares for members’ works. We do this for hundreds of thousands of performances and usages of music every year.
Our staff correct poor data on works and ensure cue sheets are registered, enabling them to maximise claims to international societies for radio, TV, cinema and commercial performances of our members’ music, as well as ensuring collection for live performances. We also have a unique live concert service for major live tours ,which is unrivalled internationally.
What are the most important things to bear in mind when working to protect members’ rights and royalties in international markets?
Thoroughness, persistence, excellent, well-established relationships and, importantly, working hard for our society partners in our market, as they work for us in theirs.
What’s keeping the International Team busy at the moment?
We have a busy year ahead, with members such as Adele, the Rolling Stones, Iron Maiden, The 1975, Years & Years, Disclosure and Foals touring the world. We’re working hard to ensure they are always properly remunerated and as quickly as possible.
We’ve also developed our fingerprinting technologies with key partners to further enhance our income tracking capabilities, and we have recently launched a programme to improve our digital services. The aim is to provide our members with a simple and transparent digital experience along with the tools to interact with their data in a clear way that suits them.
What can the society do to help futureproof overseas earnings for members?
We have developed a groundbreaking hub in ICE – the first of its kind – to help us process trillions of lines of digital data across multiple territories. This hub represents a larger set of repertoire than any other entity protecting our members’ digital income. We’re doing this in conjunction with the Swedish and German societies to save costs and deliver efficiencies,.
What can members do to help maximise their overseas royalties?
We encourage all our members to visit our website and make use of the tools which help us track their income. For example, you can report your overseas events, check your international music usages against our data and claim for unpaid royalties. Links to these tools and other resources can be found on your member account page when you log in to prsformusic.com.
This article featured in M59, the current print issue. Read it online at http://www.m-magazine.co.uk/features/archive/in-print-m59/
Karen Buse, executive director of membership and international, has been with the society since 1991. She has headed up the international department since 2003, overseeing revenue generation, inter-society relationships and international royalty collecting standards.
Now, as digital transforms the global industry and data volumes hit an all-time high, Karen and her team are delivering new strategies to stay ahead of the curve. Here, she tells us more…
PRS for Music has a strong performance record overseas – what’s behind this?
We have more than 100 years of experience and well established relationships with over 120 societies worldwide, representing more than 150 countries. These relationships take many years to build into trusting partnerships for the benefit of all our members – and they set us apart from newer collective management organisations which are having to build these relationships from scratch.
We collect around £200m annually for members from overseas countries; more than any other collecting society. This is because of the fantastic breadth and depth of our members’ repertoire. We’re hugely respected by our international partners, which puts us in a very strong position to affect change.
Our 30-strong multicultural, multilingual international team deserve a special mention here – they are held in high regard by their overseas counterparts, which helps enormously when looking after our members’ income abroad.
What does this mean for UK songwriters and composers?
Our members’ rights are now represented not only in all major markets but also in newer markets such as Macau, Mongolia and Mauritius. We believe we have the widest reach of any other collective management organisation. This means that any PRS for Music member can be rest assured that, when their music is performed - by any means – we will do our very best to collect royalties for those performances through our contractual relationships with other societies.
What sets PRS for Music apart in terms of protecting and growing members’ international royalties?
We’ve developed several bespoke tools and services over many years to help members track and claim their international royalties. We invest more than anyone else in data and tracking in foreign markets.
We negotiate improved service levels for our members to reduce costs and speed up turnaround times. We’re also committed to cross-checking and processing performance and royalty data from other societies to make absolutely sure that everything is accounted for, completely and accurately; not all societies do this level of cross-checking.
We have the largest international team of any society and that allows us to follow up on missing usages, unidentified usages and missing shares for members’ works. We do this for hundreds of thousands of performances and usages of music every year.
Our staff correct poor data on works and ensure cue sheets are registered, enabling them to maximise claims to international societies for radio, TV, cinema and commercial performances of our members’ music, as well as ensuring collection for live performances. We also have a unique live concert service for major live tours ,which is unrivalled internationally.
What are the most important things to bear in mind when working to protect members’ rights and royalties in international markets?
Thoroughness, persistence, excellent, well-established relationships and, importantly, working hard for our society partners in our market, as they work for us in theirs.
What’s keeping the International Team busy at the moment?
We have a busy year ahead, with members such as Adele, the Rolling Stones, Iron Maiden, The 1975, Years & Years, Disclosure and Foals touring the world. We’re working hard to ensure they are always properly remunerated and as quickly as possible.
We’ve also developed our fingerprinting technologies with key partners to further enhance our income tracking capabilities, and we have recently launched a programme to improve our digital services. The aim is to provide our members with a simple and transparent digital experience along with the tools to interact with their data in a clear way that suits them.
What can the society do to help futureproof overseas earnings for members?
We have developed a groundbreaking hub in ICE – the first of its kind – to help us process trillions of lines of digital data across multiple territories. This hub represents a larger set of repertoire than any other entity protecting our members’ digital income. We’re doing this in conjunction with the Swedish and German societies to save costs and deliver efficiencies,.
What can members do to help maximise their overseas royalties?
We encourage all our members to visit our website and make use of the tools which help us track their income. For example, you can report your overseas events, check your international music usages against our data and claim for unpaid royalties. Links to these tools and other resources can be found on your member account page when you log in to prsformusic.com.
This article featured in M59, the current print issue. Read it online at http://www.m-magazine.co.uk/features/archive/in-print-m59/
