PRS for Music have announced a record £174m royalty distribution, representing a year-on-year increase of 15%. This marks the highest April distribution in the history of PRS.
In support of members affected by the impact of the ongoing pandemic, PRS prioritised live performance royalty processing. This has led to an increase in distributions totalling £18.3m.
In addition to live royalties, £21.4m was distributed to PRS’ members from the public performance of music in shops, cafés, restaurants, jukeboxes, fitness classes, cinemas and general business. Combined live and public performance royalties were up 68% on 2019.
To ensure the time from stream to payment is minimised wherever possible, there has been an increase in online royalty processing of major digital service providers and there will be additional focus going forward on the smaller scale services.
Andrea C. Martin, chief executive, PRS for Music, said: ‘In these unprecedented times, it is incredibly important that we are distributing accurate and timely royalties to all of our members, from every revenue stream, as quickly as possible. We hope that this record April PRS distribution, alongside our recently announced PRS Emergency Relief Fund, will help ease the burden felt by music creators due to Coronavirus. The entire PRS team is working hard to ensure that through this period of significant disruption - especially to live music and UK businesses - we do everything we can to minimise the risk to future distributions.’
PRS members can check their royalty payment amounts online now. Money will reach accounts on 15 April.
