PRS for Music backs down on livestream licence fee plan
PRS for Music, who collect royalties for songwriters and composers and license music events in the UK, have backed down from a plan to charge grassroots venues and musicians to perform in small-scale livestreams.
Last week, the company announced that PRS-registered organisers of livestreamed events raising up to £250 would need to pay a flat fee of £22.50, rising to £45 for events generating between £251 and £500. The fees would result in a much higher proportion of takings being paid out compared with the 4.2% of takings at in-person gigs, which are currently impossible during the coronavirus pandemic.
The decision provoked outrage across the music industry, with Music Venue Trust head Mark Davyd calling it “disgraceful … a tax in the middle of a crisis on people who need the money.”
PRS for Music have relented, and livestreamed events generating less that £500 will now be covered by a free licence, providing artists are exclusively performing their own works. They also stated: “We are committed to agreeing a discounted rate for larger concerts as soon as possible to make these licences available to the market,” suggesting that their original proposal of a tariff of 8% to 17% would be revised down.
Venues or PRS-registered artists will not need to retrospectively apply for licences for gigs that they have already performed, as had been previously announced.
Reacting to the decision, Music Venue Trust said it “warmly welcomes this logical revision” but said it had been announced “without consultation or discussion with the sector most impacted by it” and encouraged further discussion: “Grassroots music venues want to pay the right songwriters an appropriate fee for the use of their material. The creation of songs is the beating heart of what our sector is about. Let’s work together to fix a broken system that recognises and rewards that.”
PRS for Music said the earlier flat fees were “informed by feedback received over the last nine months by those looking to stage these events and conversations with key stakeholders, including promoters and managers”, and it was now “accelerating its ongoing dialogue with key stakeholders on an interim rate, while the physical live sector is closed, for online concerts in the coming weeks”.
Live music events continue to be cancelled due to the pandemic. Following Glastonbury festival’s cancellation in January, the most prestigious music festival in the US, Coachella, has also been cancelled. It had twice been postponed from its usual April 2020 date, first to October, then to April 2021.
UK festival organisers are still hopeful that their events, particularly those later in the summer, will be able to go ahead, but are lobbying the government to underwrite them with insurance and allow preparations to continue. Culture secretary Oliver Dowden has hinted at support to come, saying on 21 January: “We continue to help the arts on recovery, including problems around getting insurance.”