PRS

The Phonographist

The Phonographist

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Just wondering if some of you could answer a question about PRS.

I know that a lot of the dance music scene seems to disregard rules on copyright as they don't really make a great deal of sense.

But,

If a DJ were to play your track in a club and let the PRS know they had,
assuming you were a member could you make collect some money ?

If this is the case, does it require the promotor to have a license as well as the venue owner of is just one sufficient ?

:unsure:

Thank dudes

:bananada:
 
As I understand it (which is vaguely)...

The whole topic of DJing is a bit of a grey area.

I think by the letter of the law, rights holders should get paid for the PRS when DJs play their stuff - the same as they do (should) from background music in a cafe, a jukebox, a radio, etc.

However I think in practice people realised it's simply ludicrous to make note of every tune every DJ played at every club on every night in the country... I think, therefore, that there is just one big blind eye turned to the entire shebang.

I look forward to someone more clued up correcting me :)
 
The PRS licence is issued to both performers and venues. The licensee pays an annual fee which covers the royalties. Venues are *supposed* to write down all the music played and send it to the PRS in an annual "review". Usually they can't be arsed, but the information collected is used to let PRS work out roughly who gets what from their pot of money.

Basically - if you play at a club then the club should have a PRS licence which covers music played on their premises. If you are playing at a venue not covered by a valid license then it's up to the *performer* i.e. the DJ to make sure they are covered. In practice the chances of the PRS approaching you in a forest or squat and asking for your license are non-existant. But, if you were to follow the law precisely then you should have one to cover yourself when performing in an unlicensed venue ...

I once had to collect the PRS information for Broadstairs Folk Festival. Sent them 100 odd pages with nearly every song listed as "Traditional - Author unknown" ... must have made someone's day at the PRS office!
 
So, if I said declared all my playlists to the club manager all the artists would get some money regardless of whether the promotor had a PRS license ?
 
The Phonographist said:
So, if I said declared all my playlists to the club manager all the artists would get some money regardless of whether the promotor had a PRS license ?
Click to expand...

If the Venue had a license then that would happen. If it didn't (or the club manager didn't care - which is also likely) then your playlists would hit the bin in the blink of an eye :)

As to DJ's - it's not really a "grey area" - the rules are very set. It's just unenforceable - especially as if the PRS were to spend all their money on checking up and spying on clubs then there'd be no money for the artists. They're a non-profit organisation and just try and get as much cash as they can for the artists without spending it on admin and enforcement ...
 
I always thought is was weird the way that underground record labels stamp, not for public performance on dance music 12"s and that (obviously its just a legal thing) .... It was blatently obvious we are buying them to spin at clubs and parties :) and alot of underground record label surely wouldn't even exist if it wasn't for Djs at clubs and parties playing their tracks... :!:
 
if a club fills out a PRS list... and you are a menber you should get payed...
you also need 3 radio plays to get onto PRS at least that is the best way....
i also think you can join the musicians union or somthing like that...
unfortunately with the departure of Jhon Peel, who was one of the ground braking DJ's out there... it will be that little bit harder to get official radio play....

hope this helps


:)
 
The PRS exists for the benefit of artists, and the dance music scene has done itself no favours by ignoring it as much as it has. For every DJ set where a tracklist is not passed to the PRS, more money goes to people like Britney Spears and Cliff Richard, as the funds generated by PRS licenses is split amongst people whose names do appear on PRS forms, the reasoning being that tracks not notified to the PRS are obviously not getting played.
 
PRS were in strong attendance at Ally Pally on Saturday, passing out forms early on in the evening to stage crew, requesting them to be completed. However the guys they sent along were not really aware of the difficulty of co-ordinating something like that with multiple rooms running and DJ swaps every hour, with some rushing off to other gigs straight away. As it happens, all rooms were run to dat so that they could be reviewed at a later point.

Interesting to think that IM and others could be paid twice for playing one of their own tunes, once by the promoter, once by PRS (if they sign up). Shame that people like Dave the Drummer and others who are creating 'on the fly' music couldn't benefit (surely if there's no track name, etc there's no track as far as the PRS are concerned)
 
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