PRS In The Uk ???

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PRS In The Uk ???

Post by DigitalMusicProduction »

Hi

After recently signing up with an online music distributor, uploading all the required material, album art, audio, paid the fee, after e-mailing to confirm the single had passed inspection and was ready for distribution to all online streaming platform's they confirmed the final step is to be signed and affiliated with a (Performing Right's Organisation) PRS in the UK.

I'm aware of all the publishing royalties and licensing agreements behind all this, however is it not the responsibility of my publisher, the distribution partner i signed with to already be affiliated with a PRS organisation? as I'm now expected in addition to the fee already paid to the publisher to also sign with PRS for a further £100.

PRS confirm they collect and distribute to the artist with the artist keeping a 100% of all royalties due, however the distribution partner i signed with, in my case "CD Baby" when collecting royalties on my behalf from PRS take a 15% cut.
Anyone with prior experience in this domain? advice would be helpful.
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Re: PRS In The Uk ???

Post by James Perrett »

There are actually two payments made when someone streams or downloads your work. The artist payment comes to you via CD Baby while the writer payment goes to PRS. CD Baby are a distributor, not a publisher (these words have two specific and different meanings in the music business).

I know that you are creating classical piano recordings - are they of your own compositions or are you playing other composers' work? If you are only playing other composers' work then there will be no writer royalties due to you but if the works are your own composition then you will either need to join PRS directly or use a publisher if you want to get paid.

If the PRS joining fee is too high, you could look at alternative publishers. I've been involved with projects that use Sentric Music as a publisher. Sentric take 20% of your royalties but no upfront payment is needed. In addition they will also give you a way of putting your music forward for sync placements on TV shows.
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Re: PRS In The Uk ???

Post by RichardT »

You don’t have to join PRS unless you want to. Personally I would wait until you’re getting thousands of streams (that’s what PRS themselves recommend).

James’ comments are spot on.
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Re: PRS In The Uk ???

Post by DigitalMusicProduction »

James Perrett wrote: Sun Oct 24, 2021 7:09 pmThere are actually two payments made when someone streams or downloads your work. The artist payment comes to you via CD Baby while the writer payment goes to PRS.

If the PRS joining fee is too high, you could look at alternative publishers. I've been involved with projects that use Sentric Music as a publisher. Sentric take 20% of your royalties but no upfront payment is needed. In addition they will also give you a way of putting your music forward for sync placements on TV shows.

Hi James

Yes all works are my own compositions, I'm also both the artist and writer. I looked in to (Centric Music) it seems they charge a fee of £50, and if your correct in saying they take 20% com, with CD Baby also talking 15% cut, that ends in quiet a proportional cut of the royalties which leaves me a little confused.

You mention the artist payment comes to you via CD Baby while the writer payment goes to PRS. CD Baby take 9% cut on all downloads, $4 for CDs and 15% on publishing royalties, which if I'm correct are royalties collected from PRS then distributed to the artist, why then if PRS are doing the work are CD Baby charging 15%?

I know it's a complexed topic, sorry for any confusion.
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Re: PRS In The Uk ???

Post by DigitalMusicProduction »

RichardT wrote: Sun Oct 24, 2021 10:08 pmYou don’t have to join PRS unless you want to. Personally I would wait until you’re getting thousands of streams (that’s what PRS themselves recommend)

Hi Richard

Are you saying it's a personal choice for the artist/writer to choose either PRS or an independent publisher to collect and distribute royalties on their behalf? Again as mentioned to James, why then are CD Baby acting as a bridge between PRS and the Artist/writer in collecting royalties from PRS and taking 15% cut from the artist/writer, if thats meant to be the job of PRS, if I'm accurate in saying this?

Sorry for any confusion.
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Re: PRS In The Uk ???

Post by DigitalMusicProduction »

In response to PRS I've just read that songwriters in the UK are eligible for CD Baby Pro Publishing, but "must" affiliate with PRS directly first, that sounds pretty mandatory and not optional, will be contacting CD Baby to comfirm.
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Re: PRS In The Uk ???

Post by RichardT »

DigitalMusicProduction wrote: Mon Oct 25, 2021 6:10 pm In response to PRS I've just read that songwriters in the UK are eligible for CD Baby Pro Publishing, but "must" affiliate with PRS directly first, that sounds pretty mandatory and not optional, will be contacting CD Baby to comfirm.

Yes do, but I don’t believe PRS is mandatory, and I suspect CdBaby publishing is optional too.
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Re: PRS In The Uk ???

Post by RichardT »

DigitalMusicProduction wrote: Mon Oct 25, 2021 4:56 pm
RichardT wrote: Sun Oct 24, 2021 10:08 pmYou don’t have to join PRS unless you want to. Personally I would wait until you’re getting thousands of streams (that’s what PRS themselves recommend)

Hi Richard

Are you saying it's a personal choice for the artist/writer to choose either PRS or an independent publisher to collect and distribute royalties on their behalf? Again as mentioned to James, why then are CD Baby acting as a bridge between PRS and the Artist/writer in collecting royalties from PRS and taking 15% cut from the artist/writer, if thats meant to be the job of PRS, if I'm accurate in saying this?

Sorry for any confusion.

This is CDBaby acting as a publisher by the sound of it. You don’t actually normally need to register either with a publisher or the PRS directly unless you want to. However, I don’t know what CDbaby’s Terms and conditions say in this particular case.
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Re: PRS In The Uk ???

Post by James Perrett »

DigitalMusicProduction wrote: Mon Oct 25, 2021 4:31 pm Yes all works are my own compositions, I'm also both the artist and writer. I looked in to (Centric Music) it seems they charge a fee of £50, and if your correct in saying they take 20% com, with CD Baby also talking 15% cut, that ends in quiet a proportional cut of the royalties which leaves me a little confused.

I think you can use either CD Baby OR another publisher like Sentric to collect the writer's royalties. (CD Baby didn't offer this service when I last used them) So either 15% or 20% but not both. Sentric have some good explanations of all this on their website.

I'm fairly sure that Sentric don't have a joining fee. They didn't have one when we joined and all the recent online articles that I've seen mention that there is no joining fee. You may be confusing this with the minimum payout. They only pay you when you have received a certain amount of money. In our case it always used to be £30. You don't lose the money if you don't reach that target - it just sits in your account until you earn enough to push you over the payout threshold.

It is worth checking in which countries CD Baby collects royalties and whether they will also collect radio and performance royalties.
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Re: PRS In The Uk ???

Post by DigitalMusicProduction »

Spoke to CD Baby recently and all was confirmed. Apparently when choosing CD Baby PRO (Performing Rights Organisation) you the songwriter are asking CD Baby to collect your share of publishing royalties for your single or album, this then allows CD Baby to register your songs with PRS and administer the publishing of those royalties on your behalf, hence the reason for you the songwriter to first be affiliated with PRS to open the doors for CD Baby, and for that they take 15% com.

It seems then CD Baby are acting not only as your distribution partner but also as PRS on your behalf without you the songwriter needing to contact PRS whenever your owed royalties, it's basically all dealt with under the CD Baby PRO package, it was also said it's not necessary to sign with PRS at this point until you begin to generate streams.
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Re: PRS In The Uk ???

Post by BigRedX »

Is the playing/broadcast of your recorded music your only potential source of performance royalties? If so then assigning CDBaby or Sentric as your publisher might make sense. However if your perform your music live then these organisations will also take their 15/20% of that too, in which case you are much better off joining the PRS yourself as a writer member.

IME CDBaby Pro offer nothing that you can't do yourself as a writer member of PRS. They are not a conventional publisher in the sense that they won't push your music for other artists to cover or try to get it onto TV or film sound tracks. They just sit there taking their percentage from artists too lazy to sort out their own PRO membership.

Sentric on the other hand are slightly more like a traditional music publisher, but from what I have seen their target sync market is UK daytime TV. So if you think that your music is a good fit as BGM for a reality TV show or Hollyoaks then they might be worth considering.

Both of these organisations will take their percentage of ALL of your performance royalties. Also Sentric take ages to relinquish their share of your PRS income once you opt out of their services, so tread with caution.
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Re: PRS In The Uk ???

Post by DigitalMusicProduction »

Thanks for that info BigRed, appreciated, also thanks to everyone else for your support on this topic.
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