PRS's 2024 Annual General Meeting (AGM) took place earlier today (4 June), which saw four new Directors being appointed to the PRS Members' Council.
It was also announced during the AGM, which was held at IET London: Savoy Place, that an additional £6m in royalties from online services are set to be paid to members each year by PRS for Music.
The four appointees to the Council are Publisher Council Members Phil Rose (Sentric Music) and Laura Young (S2K Music), and Writer Council Members Mike Stobbie and Pete Woodroffe, the latter being appointed for a second term.
Stevie Spring CBE was also officially appointed during the AGM as Chair of the PRS for Music Board, succeeding Stephen Davidson. Stephen, who has held the role since 2014, is standing down after serving his full tenure.
Erica Ingham, meanwhile, was reappointed as an independent Non-Executive Council Member, while Simon Platz stepped down as a Publisher Council Member, having served on the Members’ Council since 2008.
This year’s AGM saw the ratification of several impactful resolutions designed to promote fairness, representation and improvements to how PRS is run. These include the expansion of the Members’ Council to 10 writers and 10 publisher representatives to ensure more ideas, expertise and lived experiences are represented; a new ‘Voting Plus’ category to encourage more writer members to engage with the democratic process; and an enhanced Annual Transparency Report.
Julian Nott, PRS Members’ Council Chair, said: ‘A vital component of PRS’s achievements is the role the Members’ Council serves in representing the concerns and needs of songwriters, composers and music publishers.
‘Congratulations to newly elected Directors Phil Rose, Laura Young and Mike Stobbie, as well as Pete Woodroffe on his reappointment. Their combined knowledge and expertise will be an asset in the next chapter of the society.’
The AGM also saw PRS for Music CEO Andrea Czapary Martin announce a landmark 20 percent reduction in the administration rate (from 10 to 8 percent) being applied to the collection of multi-territory online (MTOL) royalties. This new policy is a direct result of PRS surpassing its latest targets, delivering historic distributions and revenues to become a billion-pound society.
PRS estimates that this reduction will see £1.5m more being paid out to members in each of its quarterly royalty distributions from October this year, totalling £47 million by 2030.
In addition, Andrea said that PRS will begin a comprehensive review of its administration rates across all revenue streams next year, with a view to reducing and simplifying them.
The company’s focus on innovation, technology, transparency and efficiency, as well as improving services with its joint venture with ICE, has delivered consistent year-on-year growth, while maintaining a cost-to-income ratio below 10 percent for a second year running.
Andrea said: ‘We have achieved so much over the last year with radical and technological developments, meaning that last year we paid out a record-breaking £943.6m in royalties: an increase of nearly 13 percent on the previous year. We also broke the billion-pound revenue threshold.
‘I believe that the success of the society should be defined by the success we pass on to songwriters and composers. I am delighted to announce that the reduction in multi-territory online licensing admin fees is a real, tangible example of how we are constantly working on behalf of members to be competitive, and to get more money to them more quickly.’
