PRS for Music announces historic April royalty distribution to members

£174m distributed with increased royalties collected through live, online, public performance and international plays

PRS for Music has today announced a record £174m royalty distribution to members, marking the highest ever April payment in its history. The payment is a 15% year-on-year increase on April 2019.

Representing the rights of over 145,500 songwriters, composers and music publishers in the UK and worldwide, royalties are paid to PRS for Music members when their music is streamed, downloaded, broadcast, performed live and played in public.

PRS’ international collections continue to drive increased royalty payments for members, reaching £64.3m in April’s payment, up 19% against the same period in 2019. Through a global network of agreements with partner societies, revenues from PRS managed territories, direct licensing and digital exploitation, the society’s international arm is known world over for its best practices in collection efficacy as well as promotion of transparency and accuracy.

In support of members most immediately affected by the impact of the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, PRS prioritised live performance royalty processing, reducing average turnaround time to three months. This led to a substantial increase in live monies distributed for the April distribution, totalling £18.3m.

Alongside 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.

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 via their online accounts or the PRS app now, with money reaching accounts on 15 April.

About PRS for Music

Here for music since 1914, PRS for Music is a world-leading music collective management organisation representing the rights of more than 175,000 talented songwriters, composers and music publishers. Redefining the global standard for music royalties, PRS for Music ensures songwriters and composers are paid whenever their musical compositions and songs are streamed, downloaded, broadcast, performed and played in public. 

For 110 years it has grown and protected the rights of the music creator community, paying out royalties with more accuracy, transparency and speed. In 2023, PRS for Music paid out £943.6m in royalties and collected a record £1.08 billion in revenues. prsformusic.com