Musicians criticise new PRS licence fee for small-scale live-streams

The new regulations, introduced yesterday, stipulate that for events with revenues of less than £250, licenses will cost £22.50 (+VAT). For events with revenues between £251 and £500, licences will cost £45 (+VAT). 

Annabella Coldrick and David Martin, CEOs of The Featured Artists Coalition, pointed out that 'even at its lowest, the rate is more than double the tariff for "in-person" events'.

'All of us want songwriters and composers to be paid fairly and efficiently for the use of their work, but this is not the way to go about it,' they continued. 'Once again, we would urge PRS for Music to stop acting unilaterally. They need to urgently listen to the growing concerns of artists and their representatives during the pandemic, implement a waiver for performer-writers to opt out of such fees, and commit to a full and transparent industry-wide consultation before issuing invoices to cash-strapped artists.'

The Music Venue Trust (MVT) issued a statement criticising the new tariff, which they say was implemented in spite of 'correspondence with the live team at PRS for Music throughout this crisis on how we can work together to ensure everyone at a grassroots level emerges from this crisis'.

They continued: 'It is extremely important to the grassroots sector that the songwriters whose work sit at the heart of our ecosystem are adequately and reasonable paid for their work. A fixed rate tariff is not a mechanism by which that will be achieved, and the methodology and rate proposed by PRS for Music will not result in grassroots songwriters being paid for their work.'

A PRS spokesperson said that the launch of the new license was designed to simplify the process of acquiring the permission to use music rights for small-scale gigs.

'Similar to live gigs, the licensee of a small-scale live-stream event,' they said, 'whether that be a PRS for Music member, or venue, is asked to submit a set list from the event confirming the musical works, songs performed, or to be performed. This then ensures that when a writer's song is performed that writer will get paid.'

PRS said that the company is in no way seeking to prevent artists nor venues from generating an income from online concerts.

'It goes without saying our songwriter and composer members, and those who don’t perform and therefore only earn from their songwriting and composing, have seen a significant impact on their incomes from the closure of the live music sector. It is essential that they can fairly share in the value being generated by online live concerts which are using their works.'