PRS for Music sues Live Nation in UK High Court

PRS for Music is suing Live Nation, accusing the promoter of failing to correctly report the full price that fans have paid for VIP tickets and other ticket packages.

The High Court action has been filed by the UK collective management organisation (CMO) and public performance licensing joint venture PPL PRS Limited, against Live Nation (Music) UK Limited, Festival Republic, DF Concerts, Isle Of Wight Festival and Parklife.

PRS says that its songwriter and customer members could be missing out on royalties due to LN’s “disregard” of its core requirements.

“PRS for Music is committed to ensuring songwriters and composers are paid fairly whenever their works are performed,” says a spokesperson for the body.

“Live music venues and promoters are required to pay music creators, based on a percentage of the price paid by the consumer, and to adhere to the reporting standards set out in PRS’s applicable tariff. This includes full and accurate reporting of all ticket types, including VIP tickets and other ticket bundles and packages. The vast majority of promoters and venues comply with the terms of their licence.”

It continues: “We have commenced legal action to address Live Nation’s continual failure to correctly report the full price consumers have paid for VIP tickets and other ticket packages. Disregard of these core requirements by a company of Live Nation’s size is entirely unacceptable and means songwriters and composers are not paid all the royalties they are due.

“PRS for Music stands firm in its mission to protect its members’ rights and create a level playing field for all event promoters and venues that honour their licensing obligations. We urge the whole live music sector to embrace the need for greater transparency, ensuring that music creators and the live industry can thrive together. ”

Live Nation declined to comment.

“This false narrative has clearly been constructed with the purpose of creating division within the industry”

News of the lawsuit comes two weeks after a separate legal dispute involving PRS intensified.

A group of UK songwriters and composers, including King Crimson’s Robert Fripp and Jim and William Reid from The Jesus And Mary Chain, initiated court action against the organisation in June. They are bidding to “overhaul the implementation of procedures and policies” they claim are “prejudicial to their interests and to the interests of PRS members more broadly”, and have been joined in the action by direct licensing specialist PACE Rights Management.

In its latest statement, the plaintiffs again hit out at PRS’ Major Live Concerts Service (MLCS), alleging it offers “preferential conditions to writer-performers who headline live shows in 5,000+ capacity”.

Referring to a PRS defence document filed in September, the group claims the CMO attempted to justify the scheme by inferring that smaller shows were administered less efficiently, and should not benefit from preferential rates

PRS dismissed the statements as “false” and deliberately divisive”, adding: “This false narrative has clearly been constructed with the purpose of creating division within the industry which ought to be working together for the benefit of music creators.”

In a further allegation, the claimants say they have learned that “PRS has decided to appropriate significant sums of live black box income into MLCS distributions”.

A PRS for Music spokesperson set out its process in response.

“Each year we openly publish the live events we do not hold a setlist for and ask members to check for unclaimed live performance royalties,” a spokesperson tells IQ. “Following this, if there are still residual live royalties, this is reconciled by being paid proportionately across known live performances in the relevant period. This is in accordance with the Distribution Policy, as agreed by the representatives of the elected Members’ Council.”

Earlier this year, PRS announced it had become a billion-pound collection society after collecting £1.08 billion in revenues for 2023. The organisation paid out a record £943.6 million of royalties for songwriters, composers and music publishers last year, with total royalty distributions increasing by £107.4m (12.8%) on 2022.

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PRS for Music sued by songwriters over royalties

A group of UK songwriters and composers has initiated legal action against their own collective management organisation, PRS for Music.

The group, which includes King Crimson’s Robert Fripp, among others, has been joined in the action by direct licensing specialist PACE Rights Management in a bid to “overhaul the implementation of procedures and policies” they claim are “prejudicial to their interests and to the interests of PRS members more broadly”.

The songwriters say the action centres around three key points in relation to the licensing and administration of live public performance rights by the organisation:

• The “unreasonable and unnecessary obstacles” that PRS presents to writer members who wish to withdraw their live public performance rights, and to directly license those rights.
• A “lack of transparency and withholding of information” by PRS about the deductions suffered by writers from their royalty income when their rights are licensed internationally
• The “preferential conditions” offered by the’ Major Live Concerts Service (MLCS), which are in direct conflict with PRS’ position as a collective management organisation, which they say creates a two-tier system where the most successful writers are effectively being subsidised by the rest of the PRS members

“PRS members are treated as second-class citizens in their own organisation”

“It has created a situation where, for instance, a songwriter whose works are performed at a concert selling just over 500 tickets with a face value of £30 is charged more administration fees by PRS, than a songwriter whose works are performed at a concert selling 80,000 tickets with a face value of £150,” says the group.

PRS has fired back, saying it “fundamentally” rejects the allegations, which “misrepresent the policies of PRS for Music”.

However, the claimants say that, according to PRS’s own figures, the “preferential conditions of the MLCS results in its beneficiaries paying an average administration fee of 0.2%, while the wider PRS membership pays 23% – proportionately, 115 times more”.

“In effect, the most successful writers are being subsidised by the rest of the PRS Members,” they continue. “The writers believe that, together with its previous incarnations, the MLCS has led to the vast majority of PRS members being overcharged administration fees by PRS on live and international income for nearly 30 years.”

“We have been left with no option but to seek redress through the courts”

The legal action brings the right of withdrawal from PRS into focus.

“From a theoretical or academic perspective, the efficiencies of collective rights management make perfect sense for songwriters and composers,” adds a further collective statement from the claimants. “However, PRS has strayed significantly from the principles on which it was founded 110 years ago, to the point that the organisation’s policies no longer appear to be operating in the best interests of its members. PRS members are treated as second-class citizens in their own organisation.

“Regretfully, after years of PRS refusing to discuss or constructively engage with these issues – including the withdrawal of live performance rights, the lack of transparency around international deductions, and the operation of the Major Live Concert Service – we have been left with no option but to seek redress through the courts.

“The ball is now firmly in PRS’s court. Either they constructively engage with much needed reforms to empower and benefit writers and publishers, or they continue to resist these necessary changes, and attempt to defend the indefensible by spending yet more of the members’ money on legal costs supporting policies that make the members less money.”

“Our policies and rules follow a thorough and extensive approval and review process by the board and the Members’ Council”

In response, PRS released the following statement: “We fundamentally reject the allegations in this claim which misrepresent the policies of PRS for Music. We have been engaged with PACE on these issues for more than five years including with representatives of the PRS Members’ Council and have sought to address their concerns collaboratively.

“PRS for Music is owned and controlled by its members and exists to protect the collective interests of all the songwriters, composers and publisher members we represent fairly. Our policies and rules follow a thorough and extensive approval and review process by the board and the Members’ Council, which is comprised of members and independent non-executive directors appointed by the membership. The rules which govern the process for live rights withdrawals were approved by members at the PRS AGM.”

It continues: “PRS for Music has consistently sought constructive dialogue with PACE for many years, proposing and implementing solutions to the issues raised. We have worked extremely hard to simplify our processes in the interest of our members, which PACE has consistently failed to comply or engage with, which has resulted in royalties being unnecessarily withheld from PRS members for the live performance of their works at concerts. It has also created complexity and uncertainty for live music venues and promoters.”

Previously, in 1994, U2 launched legal action to challenge PRS’ “anti-competitive and restrictive behaviour” on the issue and the alleged “inefficiencies, delay and excessive expenditure” they incurred.

A separate collective action, headed by Blur drummer Dave Rowntree, was launched against PRS in April on behalf of its writer members

Meanwhile, a separate collective action, headed by Blur drummer Dave Rowntree, was launched against PRS in April on behalf of its writer members, claiming that the organisation misallocates ‘black box’ income.

The claim says that PRS, which represents the rights of more than 175,000 songwriters, composers and music publishers, is violating UK and EU competition rules because it unfairly distributes so-called ‘black box’ income – royalties paid to PRS that it has not been able to allocate to the owner.

The lawsuit says that most of the black box income belongs to PRS’s writer members, but distribution of the income is unfairly skewed in favour of publishers. It seeks to recoup the difference between the black box income that writers should have been paid and what PRS actually paid them.

PRS denies the allegations, which it says are” factually incorrect and fundamentally misrepresent our policies and operations”.

PRS announced last month that it has become a billion-pound collection society after collecting £1.08 billion in revenues for 2023. The organisation paid out a record £943.6 million of royalties for songwriters, composers and music publishers last year, with total royalty distributions increasing by £107.4m (12.8%) on 2022.

World tours by PRS members including Harry Styles, Sam Smith and Shania Twain, contributed to an overall 93% uptick in international live income, while international royalties collected through its Major Live Concert Service (MLCS) rose 210% from £6.2m to over £19m.

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UK collection society passes £1bn in revenues

PRS for Music has become a billion-pound collection society after collecting £1.08 billion in revenues for 2023 – up 12% year-on-year.

The UK organisation paid out a record £943.6 million of royalties for songwriters, composers and music publishers last year, with total royalty distributions increasing by £107.4m (12.8%) on 2022.

World tours by PRS members including Harry Styles, Sam Smith and Shania Twain, contributed to an overall 93% uptick in international live income, while international royalties collected through its Major Live Concert Service (MLCS) rose 210% from £6.2m to over £19m.

Royalties paid out from public performance, including live music, were up 2% to £3.7m in 2023, buoyed by tours by acts such as Arctic Monkeys, Burna Boy and Busted. One-off special UK events such as Eurovision being hosted in Liverpool and Download Festival extending its lineup for its 20th anniversary were also credited as contributing factors.

PRS’ cost-to-income ratio also fell to a new low of just 9.2%, down from 9.3% the previous year.

“We’re shaping the future of our business and redefining how rights are managed globally”

“Our remarkable performance in 2023 is a testament to the team’s hard work behind the scenes of the music industry,” says PRS CEO Andrea Czapary Martin. “We’re not just surpassing financial milestones at the lowest cost-to-income ratio amongst our peers; we’re orchestrating a significant shift in the music business. My vision to ascend to a billion-pound society in royalties paid out isn’t just a goal – it reflects our commitment to music creators worldwide.

“We’re shaping the future of our business and redefining how rights are managed globally. For 110 years we have existed to ensure that every music creator receives fair compensation for their artistry, wherever and whenever their music is played.”

Meanwhile, a collective action, headed by Blur drummer Dave Rowntree, was launched against PRS last month on behalf of its writer members, claiming that the organisation misallocates ‘black box’ income.

The claim says that PRS, which represents the rights of more than 175,000 songwriters, composers and music publishers, is violating UK and EU competition rules because it unfairly distributes so-called ‘black box’ income – royalties paid to PRS that it has not been able to allocate to the owner.

“Musicians’ royalties, perhaps to the tune of hundreds of millions of pounds, have been paid to the wrong people”

The lawsuit says that most of the black box income belongs to PRS’s writer members, but distribution of the income is unfairly skewed in favour of publishers who end up receiving a large portion of the income that should be paid to writers. It seeks to recoup the difference between the black box income that writers should have been paid and what PRS actually paid them.

“I’ve agreed to be class representative because musicians’ royalties, perhaps to the tune of hundreds of millions of pounds, have been paid to the wrong people,” says Rowntree, who is working with law firm Maitland Walker. “It’s because of bad data and processes, and in today’s digitally connected world, there’s no excuse for either.”

PRS denies the allegations, which it says are” factually incorrect and fundamentally misrepresent our policies and operations”.

“PRS is owned by its members and its rules, which are robust and determined by members, treat the interests of both writers and publishers fairly,” it said in a statement. “The claim is based on a misinterpretation of PRS’ governance and operational practices, as well as the flow of royalties between publishers and the writers they represent.

“For over two years PRS has constructively engaged with the claimant’s legal representatives and has repeatedly offered to meet with the claimant. Despite this, and the misconceived nature of the claim, an application has been made for consideration by the Competition Appeal Tribunal.”

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PRS for Music hails live music rebound

UK-based rights management organisation PRS for Music has hailed the rebound in live music after revealing record collections for 2022.

The society, which represents the rights of over 165,000 writers, composers, and music publishers globally, collected £964 million in 2022, a year-on-year increase of 22.9% (£179.4m), and an 18.9% increase on the previous high of £810m achieved in 2019.

Live music was responsible for generating £62.7m of royalties, an increase of 683% (£54.7m) on the pandemic-hit 2021 and 16.1% up on 2019. More than 128,000 live events were reported to PRS across the year in the UK, including major tours from the likes of Dua Lipa, Ed Sheeran, Little Mix, N-Dubz, The Cure and the Rolling Stones.

“In 2021, PRS for Music set out its vision to pay out over £1 billion in royalties within the next five years,” says PRS CEO Andrea Czapary Martin. “Last year we accelerated progress towards, and beyond, this milestone. Through our ambitious licensing strategy and utilising our joint ventures we have maximised the value of members works at every opportunity, while our investment in new technologies and services means we can pay out royalties more quickly and accurately, delivering the best possible service to members at a market leading low cost-to-income ratio.”

“LIVE continues to champion our sector, and recognises that not all parts of the live music value chain have experienced the same rebound”

PRS also launched its Back to Live Music Venue Prize competition in 2022, which saw six independent music venues across England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales awarded a total of £60,000 of financial support to improve live music experiences for performers and for the local communities they serve.

“Today’s PRS for Music announcement reflects the UK’s love of live music from our talented artists and writers,” says a statement from LIVE, the trade body of the UK live music business. “LIVE continues to champion our sector, and recognises that not all parts of the live music value chain have experienced the same rebound.

“We will continue to work with government and other stakeholders to ensure that the whole live music ecosystem can grow sustainably and uphold the UK’s reputation as a leader in the music industry. Our own report Valuing Live Music will build on this work to explore the dynamics underneath the headlines and highlight the difficulties and successes of the sector.”

Elsewhere, PRS says the European market grew 7.5% (£10.4m) in 2022 to £148.3m, predominantly due to the recovery in live touring – particularly those using PRS’s Major Live Concert Service including Coldplay, Iron Maiden and Sting.

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PRS sues LiveNow in livestreaming dispute

UK collection society PRS for Music has launched legal action against LiveNow over allegations the livestream company ran online concerts without a licence.

LiveNow has worked with artists such as Ellie Goulding, Lizzo and Gorillaz on live events, while its Studio 254 presentation with Dua Lipa in November 2020, which attracted what was billed as the biggest-ever audience for a paid livestream, with over five million people tuning in live.

However, PRS alleges that “no PRS member has been paid for the use of their songs in this event, or the other concerts held by LiveNow”.

“PRS for Music’s role is to ensure songwriters and composers, here in the UK and around the world, are paid when their music is used. We take this responsibility very seriously,” says Gavin Larkins, PRS for Music’s director of commercial development and sales.

“We provide a licence for businesses who offer ticketed online concerts and have licensed many users under this scheme. LiveNow chose not to obtain this licence prior to launching its programme of online concerts, including the globally-streamed Dua Lipa Studio 2054 online event in November 2020 – the highest viewed online concert worldwide. No PRS member has been paid for the use of their songs in this event, or the other concerts held by LiveNow.”

“We have taken action to defend the rights of our members and songwriters of other societies”

PRS says it has engaged in licensing negotiations with LiveNow for more than 18 months.

“These discussions remain unresolved and as such we have taken action to defend the rights of our members and songwriters of other societies,” adds Larkins. “Litigation has been put in motion to ensure we can collect the royalties due from LiveNow and its parent company Aser Ventures. We hope to resolve this issue, so that music creators can finally be paid for the use of their works.”

IQ has approached LiveNow for comment.

PRS has itself faced controversy over its livestream tariff in the past. A discounted 10% tariff on ‘online live concerts’ was introduced in 2021 for as long as artists and venues faced restrictions on in-person shows. The move followed earlier proposals by PRS for a new licence for both large and small-scale virtual shows – the former of which would have been charged at up to 17% of gross ticket sales – which were met with a fierce backlash from the UK live music industry.

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PRS for Music announces record royalty payments

UK collection society PRS for Music has announced a record-breaking £211 million royalty distribution to members.

The figures mark the highest ever payment in the organisation’s 108-year history, and a 18% year-over-year increase  of £32.5m on October 2021.

“The record payment of royalties by PRS for Music reflects our relentless focus on maximising the value of members’ rights”

“The record payment of royalties by PRS for Music reflects our relentless focus on maximising the value of members’ rights,” says PRS for Music CEO Andrea Czapary Martin. “Ensuring members are paid as quickly and accurately is at the heart of everything we do.”

Live and public performance royalties were up 210% on 2021, and includes all remaining royalties held for adjustment during the interruption to licensing during the pandemic. Music played overseas, including cable retransmission, was up 2.5% against the same period in 2021.

PRS represents more than 160,000 songwriters, composers and music publishers in the UK and worldwide, with royalties paid to members when their music is streamed, downloaded, broadcast, performed live and played in public.

The society also recently announced Paisley’s The Bungalow as the winner of its Back to Live Music Venue Prize for Scotland. The recovery-focused nationwide competition was launched by PRS to give independent live music venues across the UK the chance to win one of six prizes of up to £10,000.

“The Bungalow’s music legacy and increasing impact on the local community is so vitally important to the growth of music in the UK”

The 300-cap venue, which once welcomed acts such as The Fall, The Damned and Echo & the Bunnymen, is now run as a community ownership project. Its managers Tommy McGrory and Alan McEwan plan on using the prize money to upgrade the musicians’ experience at The Bungalow by renovating the space and renewing the available backline.

“We can’t express how deeply grateful we are for this award,” say McEwan and McGrory. “It is a great privilege that we have been chosen as the winner of The Back to Live Venue Prize in Scotland. It gives our team here at The Bungalow the confidence and motivation to work harder within our community to further develop which is already a fantastic music town. This is such an incredible moment for us and the money will significantly improve our assets which in turn will provide better opportunities both for grassroots and professional artists.”

PRS launched the Back to Live Music Venue Prize competition in March 2022 in direct response to the impact of the global pandemic on live music venues in the UK. Winning venues were determined by a judging panel made up of leading representatives from across the music, arts, and hospitality sectors.

“The Bungalow’s music legacy and increasing impact on the local community is so vitally important to the growth of music in the UK,” adds Martin. “We’re proud to find ways to support local scenes with projects like the Back to Live Music Venue Prize.”

Four more UK regional winners will be announced over the coming months.

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Why the UK’s live biz is set for major resurgence

The UK’s live music industry is set for a dramatic post-lockdown resurgence, according to Will Page, the author of Tarzan Economics: Eight Principles of Pivoting Through Disruption. Below, the former Spotify and PRS for Music chief economist presents his groundbreaking research.

This article was first published by Music Business Worldwide and we thought it was so good, that we wanted to republish it. Our thanks to MBW publisher Tim Ingham for agreeing.

‘Ships passing each other in the night’ is how I described Britain’s live and recorded music industries in a Billboard article during the dark days of lockdown, June 2020.

Streaming had become a ‘stay at home stock’, front loading growth in subscribers and streaming volumes. By contrast, live music had been all but silenced by the restrictions put on our freedoms to curtail the pandemic.

That article provided the evidence base to help policymakers, and contributed to the UK Government announcing a GBP £1.6 billion funding package for the arts the following month, and then the UK Government launching a £750 million insurance scheme for live events the following year.

What matters, as one Scottish Chancellor constantly told me, is ‘evidence-based policy making, not policy-based evidence making’.

I was indebted to the UK’s PRS for Music, which licences live events so that its songwriter members can collect performance royalties when their songs are played at concerts.

Its data on the British market, combined with data on recorded-music spending by the Entertainment Retailers’ Association, allowed me to model consumer spend during a time of crisis.

Now, they’ve let me update the analysis.

The exclusive insights garnered from this work are jaw-dropping. Buckle up.

Live vs recorded music spend. (Anyone remember 2019?)

Let’s go back to when the world was normal.

In 2019, British gig-goers spent GBP £1.7 billion on concert tickets (or ‘box office’), a fifth more than the £1.4 billion that consumers spent on recorded music in the same 12 months.

Combined, British music fans spent a total of £3.1 billion on music in 2019.

(Also: this concert spend captures only the primary ticketing market — what’s commonly known as the ‘face value’ – and ignores secondary markets and ancillary spend.)

Then, music was silenced from our stage, but surged on our phones.

In the surreal year of 2020, ‘box office’ collapsed 90% in the UK to just £200 million – whereas spending on recorded music accelerated by 6% to breach the £1.5 billion watermark.

As lockdown eased in 2021, streaming’s success continued, pushing UK recorded music spend closer to £1.7 billion (ironically, the same value of the UK box office before the pandemic), whereas live spend recovered some of its losses capturing £700 million in box office (still less than half what it once was).

The importance of ‘wallet share’ – and how UK consumers spend just 0.2% of their money on music

We can stack both components of the British music industry on top of one another and add a final piece of the puzzle: wallet share.

The team at the Office of National Statistics who studied Covid’s impact on UK consumer spend kindly provided me with data on recreation and culture spend. This enabled me to measure total UK spend on music as a share of what is often termed ‘the entertainment dollar’.

Think about this for a wee minute: one pound in every ten spent today in Britain is on recreation and leisure – yet only two percent of that leisure spend (which pans out as just 0.2% of the grand total) is spent on live and recorded music.

Deflating, huh?

Now, let’s get to our chart.

On the left, spend on recorded music in green, stacked with box office spend in grey. On the right, the red line represents the share of leisure spend.

The gin-and-tonic relationship of increasing subscriptions driving increasing gig-going increased wallet share from 2% in 2015 to 2.2% in 2019 – a bigger share of a bigger wallet.

As lockdown hit in 2020, wallets contracted and wallet share sank to 1.3% (less share of less money), recovering to 1.6% last year.

Now let’s figure out what these lofty figures mean for artists.

For live music, we strip out fees and taxes from the face value of the ticket and give the artist 75% of what’s remaining.

For recorded music we take the label’s own wholesale value of music and give the artist 25%.

Bizarrely, these assumptions throw up an 80/20 rule for 2019: 80% of artist income came from gigs, and 20% from recordings.

As live music is the main breadwinner for most artists, its silencing in 2020 overshadowed streaming growth, wiping 70% off their income.

If artists were struggling to make a living before we locked down the UK economy, then they had 70% less to make a living after.

And in 2021, the partial recovery in live and continued growth in streaming got artist income to only half what it once was. For individual artists, (less so for firms), that’s really tough.

While there’s no such thing as an ‘average artist’, an average pay cut of 70% raises questions of survival.

In 2019, live music income was bigger (and distributed among the few) while recorded music income was smaller (and distributed amongst the many).

The pandemic suddenly changed that mix.

As streaming has many more mouths to feed – and there’s nothing else to feed them with – it’s little surprise that the UK industry dragged itself through an arduous Parliamentary Inquiry during the lockdown years.

Now let’s focus on the ‘suffering and recovery’ in live music.

In a New Year essay I showed that, since the London Olympics, all the growth in UK live music was contained within stadiums and festivals – increasing their share from 23% in 2012 to 40% in 2019.

That’s at the expense of theatres, clubs and grassroots venues which have felt squeezed out of the British market, in absolute and relative terms.

The chart below neatly illustrates that the harder they come, the harder they fall: Stadiums and festivals lost more box office spend than arenas, theatres and clubs combined in 2020, reducing their share of UK box office down to a measly 10 percent.

From boom to bust to boom again, 2021 saw these outdoor events grow box office by over quarter of a billion, raising their share of box office to a record-breaking 45%.

To use ‘long tail’ language, the UK live industry has never been so ‘hit heavy’ – where the spoils go to so few events.

Where we go now

These insights throw up questions that a global industry can learn from.

• First, how much does scale matter in the recovery? Larger events owned by larger companies may have been better able to comply with the moving target of government regulations.
• Second, did travel restrictions give UK artists a leg-up in the UK festival rankings and if so, will it last?
• Third, we’ve had two years of stay at home ‘sofa-inertia’ (that’s Netflix and Pringles to you and me) so what will it take for behaviours to change and get us off our sofas and back into music venues?

Sure, we’re still a long way off our pre-pandemic peak of £3.2bn consumer spend and 2.2% share of wallet.

But back to Gordon Brown’s point about evidence-based policy making (and not policy-based evidence making), this work gives policymakers and industry professionals the necessary foundation to figure out what assistance and actions are required to get us back to where we once belonged.

This isn’t going to be easy.

Wallets are set to be squeezed further this year and next. That said, with the internecine nature of the Parliamentary Inquiry behind us, the imperative is for all of us – policymakers, professionals and performers – to come together to unlock the ‘coiled spring’ demand for music on British stages up and down the country.

James Taylor [not that one!] heads up music for Wembley Stadium. He sees this coiled spring(ing) into action: this summer, a record-breaking 16 concerts are taking place at the famous stadium with a staggering 1.3 million tickets sold; that’s the population of Edinburgh and Glasgow, combined!

Now the dust has settled, let’s remind ourselves that music is the alchemy in the room that brings us together. And with the pandemic finally behind us, those rooms will surely be packed to capacity.

If the collective ‘we’ get this right, it’ll be more like a slingshot than a rebound.

The author would like to thank: John Mottram and Frances Hodgson (PRSforMusic); Katherine Kent and Luke Croydon (Office of National Statistics), Liz Martins (HSBC Economics), Tim Chambers, Bill Gorjance, Ralph Simon, Entertainment Retailers Association and the BPI.

He would also like to share his thanks to Dice for their comprehensive data on the UK live events industry.

Will Page’s Tarzan Economics: Eight Principles of Pivoting Through Disruption is out now via Simon & Schuster (UK) and Little, Brown and Company (US).

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UK live revenue slumps for second straight year

Despite the return of full capacity concerts, royalties from the UK live sector fell 29.2% last year to just £8 million (€9.5m) according to collection society PRS for Music.

The total represented a £3.3m year-on-year decline and a huge 85.2% (£46m) reduction since the pre-pandemic year of 2019.

PRS, which represents the rights of over 160,000 songwriters, composers, and music publishers, cites the postponement of high-profile tours by acts such as Elton John, Dua Lipa and Eagles for the slump, along with the impact of Covid restrictions and reduced public confidence.

Moreover, there was an 84% drop in the number of live performance setlists reported to the organisation in 2021, falling from 124,000 in 2019, to 19,300. However, it notes that 2022 has begun with fresh optimism, with more than 240 major tours featuring PRS members planned throughout the UK and beyond.

Revenues are not expected to return to pre-pandemic levels until 2023

PRS CEO Andrea Czapary Martin told the BBC that revenues are not expected to return to pre-pandemic levels until 2023.

However, the body still delivered significant growth, with a 22.4% increase in overall revenues to £777.1m, on a constant currency basis, buoyed by a 45.6% (£83.9m) year-on-year increase on a constant currency basis in royalties collected from music played online to £267.8m.

Music streaming accounted for the largest proportion of online revenue, contributing £225.5m to the overall online income, up 42.5% (£67.2m) since 2020, and 45.5% (£70.5m) since 2019.

PRS distributed £677.2m in royalties to its members in 2021 – a 3.2% (£22.2m) decline on 2020, but just 1.3% (£8.8m) below 2019 figures.

“The entire organisation has embraced the chance to adapt and innovate”

“2021 was a successful year that further cements PRS for Music’s place as a world-leading, innovative rights management organisation,” says Martin. “In exceptional circumstances, and still with a recovering marketplace, we recorded a 22.4% year-on-year growth in revenue to £777.1m. The 45.6% growth in online meant we collected £267.8m – an extra £83.9m on 2020. The 59.6% uplift in public performance is encouraging as it reflects a marketplace, like the economy, that is getting back to business. Significantly, it underlines the organisation’s ability to adapt to all market sectors to fully monetise and protect the value of the music rights entrusted to us.

“Covid-19 has overshadowed my two full financial years as CEO of PRS for Music, but has given me and the whole PRS team, the opportunity to really focus on the importance and value of the work PRS does on behalf of its members and how we can better serve them in all areas of what they do.

“For all businesses, these have been unprecedented and challenging times. However, I believe we grasped that opportunity, and the entire organisation has embraced the chance to adapt and innovate. It will be from these solid foundations that we can meet our vision of becoming a billion-pound society in royalties paid out, while further strengthening our systems and partnerships, all with a cost-to-income ratio of below 10%.”

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PRS for Music cuts ties with Russia’s RAO

UK collection society PRS for Music has become the latest music organisation to cut ties with Russia in the wake of the country’s invasion of Ukraine.

PRS has issued a statement announcing that it has formally suspended its rights representation relationship with Russian society RAO, and outlined its plans to support Ukrainian members.

“PRS for Music has today formally suspended, with immediate effect, our rights representation relationship with RAO, the Russian collecting society for musical works, pending confirmation of its separation from the Russian government and those individuals and companies on the sanctions lists,” it says in a statement.

“We will be contacting all our members based in the Ukraine to offer our support”

“We are also working with CISAC to consider the ongoing membership of Russian societies in the global network. It is not our desire to punish the Russian composer, songwriter and publisher communities who support peace, and we will work with the global community to identify opportunities to amplify the voices of protest.

“We will be contacting all our members based in the Ukraine to offer our support in their time of need and are working with PRS Members’ Fund to make financial support available to them.”

Earlier this week, video-sharing site TikTok suspended live-streaming and new content from its platform in Russia, amid concerns about the spread of “fake news” about the conflict, while Spotify has closed its Russian office.

And, as revealed by IQ last week, Live Nation has pledged not to do business with Russia and Oak View Group (OVG) announced a boycott amid widespread outrage over the country’s actions.

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PRS for Music introduces 10% rate for live streams

PRS for Music has announced a discounted 10% tariff on ‘online live concerts’ for as long as artists and venues face restrictions on in-person shows.

The changes to the online live concert (OLC) licence, which covers ticketed rock and pop events, will apply while “the physical sector is facing material restrictions on its ability to operate”, according to the UK performance rights organisation. The new OLC follows earlier proposals by PRS for a new licence for both large and small-scale virtual shows – the former of which would have been charged at up to 17% of gross ticket sales – which met with a fierce backlash from the UK live music industry.

The interim 10% rate was reached following a consultation with nearly 2,000 stakeholders (80% of whom were PRS members, such as songwriters and composers) and apply for as long as “restrictions apply to physical live concerts”, after which a new permanent rate will be benchmarked against “premium video and streaming services”, in recognition of the nature of livestreamed shows.

Elsewhere, the exemption for artists performing their own material will be carried over the small-scale online live concert licence, while organisers of shows grossing less than £1,500 may choose from either a fixed-rate licence or a bespoke rate linked to specific event revenues. All OLCs will also allow viewing access for 72 hours, up from 24.

Additionally, PRS has pledged not to seek fees retroactively from livestream events held in 2020 that generated less than £1,500.

“As the rate is competitive with those charged in other countries, it will help ensure the UK remains a great place to host live online concerts”

A summary of the consultation, and FAQs about the new licence, can be found on the PRS website.

“We have had healthy debate on ticketed livestreamed events with key stakeholders across the industry representing venues, event promoters, digital platforms and PRS members,” says a PRS spokesperson. “Importantly, everyone agrees that songwriters must get paid when their songs are played and used.

“Nearly 2,000 people answered our call-for-views on the topic, 80% of whom were PRS members. More than half (54%) of these songwriters said their work had been performed by someone else as part of a livestreamed concert. Songs are the heart of the music industry.

“The discounted rate we are providing will ensure songwriters, composers and publishers are paid for their work, while allowing the emerging online live concert sector the freedom to innovate and grow. As the rate is competitive with those charged in other countries, it will help ensure the UK remains a great place to host live online concerts.

“Throughout 2020, nearly 8,000 songwriters joined PRS for Music, that’s 22 every single day, and over five million songs and compositions were registered. We will continue to do everything we can to protect the livelihoods of our members, ensuring that their music is valued, whilst at the same time, giving the market the freedom to evolve.”

This article will be updated with industry reaction to the interim OLC rate.

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