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British music rights society

PRS for Music Limited (formerly The MCPS PRS Alliance Limited) is a British music copyright collective, made up of two collection societies: the Mechanical Copyright Protection Society (MCPS) and the Performing Right Society (PRS). It undertakes collective rights management for musical works on behalf of its 160,000 members. PRS for Music was formed in 1997 following the MCPS PRS Alliance. In 2009, PRS and MCPS PRS Alliance realigned their brands and became PRS for Music. PRS represents their songwriter, composer and music publisher members’ performing rights, and collects royalties on their behalf whenever their music is played or performed publicly. MCPS also represents songwriters, composers and music publishers – representing their mechanical rights, and collects royalties whenever their music is reproduced as a physical product – this includes CDs, DVDs, digital downloads and broadcast or online. PRS (Performing Right Society) and MCPS (Mechanical Copyright Protection Society) are two separate collection societies with PRS running its own operations, providing services to MCPS under the name PRS for Music. As of 2018 PRS has entered a joint venture with Phonographic Performance Limited (PPL) under a newly formed private company called PPL PRS Ltd with the aim of making it easier for their customers to obtain a music licence.

The Performing Right Society was founded in 1914 by a group of music publishers, to protect the value of copyright and to help provide an income for composers, songwriters and music publishers. At the time, PRS collected fees for live performance from sheet music. PRS was distinct from both the activities of the Mechanical Copyright Protection Society which was founded in 1910, and the Phonographic Performance Limited (PPL), founded in 1934 by Decca and EMI. The Mechanical Copyright Protection Society began as Mecolico, the Mechanical Copyright Licenses Company, which was founded in 1910 in anticipation of the Copyright Act of 1911. Mecolico licensed the mechanical rights within musical works and merged with the Copyright Protection Society in 1924. Phonographic Performance Limited (PPL) collected fees for playing gramophone recordings. Another agency, the British Copyright Protection Company or Britico was founded in 1932 by Alphonse Tournier, specialising on collecting royalties in the UK on French and German musical copyright, and becoming the British Copyright Protection Association in 1962. This company, Britico, started to share computer facilities with PRS in 1970.

In July 2015, PRS for Music, Sweden collecting society STIM and German collecting society GEMA announced the completion of a joint venture to launch an integrated multi territory music licensing and processing hub covering European territories. In November 2015, it was confirmed the new hub would be called 'ICE'.

In February 2016, PRS for Music and PPL, the body who licenses the sound recording of a song, confirmed plans to create a new joint venture for public performance licensing. The new joint venture would focus on servicing all UK public performance licensing customers. The joint venture launched in 2018.

In July 2015, PRS for Music launched a pro creator campaign called Streamfair. The campaign focused on four areas, Copyright Legislation, Online Licensing, Promoting the value of music creators and education. The campaign was supported by acclaimed songwriters and composers including Jimmy Napes, Michael Price, Crispin Hunt, Gary Clark and Debbie Wiseman.

The PRS for Music Heritage Award scheme launched in 2009 with the first award going to Blur. Ceremonial plaques are unveiled to honour the performance birthplaces of legendary bands, artists and songwriters as well as recognising the network of pubs, clubs and live music venues. Those honoured include Squeeze, Elton John, Pulp, Queen and UB40.

In May 2016, PRS for Music announced its 2015 financial results, which showed an 8.4% increase in distributions to its songwriter members. The figures for 2016 were announced in May 2017 showing that revenues increased by 10.1% and royalty payments to its members increased to £527.6 m (up 11.1%). The organisation reported record royalty distributions in 2017, with a payout of £605.1 m (up 14.7%). Business area2014 (£m)2015 (£m)2016 (£m)2017 (£m)2018 (£m)2019 (£m)2020 (£m)2021 (£m)2022 (£m)International188.3195.6233.7261.4280.60278.7248.6242.4272.4Public Performance168.3175.2183.2198.1192.0222.286.2137.6228.9Broadcast124.2119.3124.1134.6127.7130.8127.4129.3128.7Online37.637.680.5122.9145.7179.1188.3267.8334Total513.5537.4621.5717.0746.0810.8650.5777.1964.0

In 2007, PRS for Music took a Scottish car servicing company to court because the employees were allegedly "listening to the radio at work, allowing the music to be 'heard by colleagues and customers'. In June 2008, PRS for Music accused Lancashire Constabulary of playing music at police stations not covered by a license, and sought an injunction and payments for damages. In 2014, PRS for Music and commercial broadcaster ITV failed to negotiate a licensing deal resulting in a Copyright Tribunal dispute. In July 2016, The Copyright Tribunal awarded in favour of PRS for Music. ITV appealed and subsequently lost a High Court appeal in early 2017. In 2015, PRS for Music entered into a licensing agreement with the Berlin based company SoundCloud after several months of litigation. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

The Santiago Agreement was established in 2000 between five European collecting societies including the UK's PRS for Music, France's SACEM, and Germany's GEMA. The agreement allows each collecting society to collect royalties on behalf of members of the other collecting society, e. g. PRS for Music would collect money for German artists listed with GEMA, but to restrict licences to be sold only within the member organisation's home country. The European Commission decided in 2008 that the cross licensing agreements formed by 24 collecting societies in Europe were in violation of anti competition laws.

Along with Phonographic Performance Limited (PPL), PRS for Music use the Centre for Education and Finance Management (CEFM) as agents to collect licensing money from schools and colleges. Universities have separate arrangements.

In 2012, a high per centage of Welsh language musicians left PRS for Music to form a separate agency, Eos (Welsh for nightingale), after changes in the way PRS for Music calculates royalties led to a fifteen fold decrease in payments. In 2007, PRS for Music had reclassified Welsh language station BBC Radio Cymru as a local station, where previously it had been considered a national station. This led to a decrease in royalty rates from £7.50 per minute to 50p per minute of broadcast music. The English language sister station, BBC Radio Wales, is classified by PRS for Music as a national station and attracts the higher rates. As of December 2012, Eos is in negotiations with the BBC, whose Welsh language service is highly dependent on its members' output. From 1 January 2013, a PRS licence will not be required to play such music, and will not give any permission to do so.