PRS for Music Explained: Why Every UK Songwriter Needs to Join

TL;DR

PRS for Music collects performing royalties whenever your compositions are streamed, broadcast, or played publicly. Membership costs £100 one-time. If your music is on Spotify, you're losing money every day you're not a PRS member.

What PRS Actually Does (And Doesn't Do)

PRS for Music is a collection society that represents songwriters, composers, and music publishers. When your song is played — whether that's a Spotify stream, a radio broadcast, a play in a shop, or a performance at a live venue — PRS collects a royalty on behalf of the songwriter.

Critically, PRS collects performing royalties for the composition, not the recording. This is a distinction that confuses many artists. When Spotify pays out a stream, there are two rights involved: the recording right (collected by your distributor — DistroKid, TuneCore, etc.) and the composition right (collected by PRS or your publisher).

If you wrote the song and you're not registered with PRS, those composition royalties are sitting in a pot waiting for you — but PRS won't pay them out until you register your works. Every day you're not a member is a day your money sits uncollected.

How Much Money Are We Talking?

For emerging artists, PRS royalties might seem small individually — fractions of a penny per stream. But they add up, and crucially, they're in addition to the distributor royalties you're already receiving.

Here's a rough example: if your song gets 100,000 Spotify streams, your distributor pays you approximately £300-400 for the recording right. PRS would pay you an additional £40-80 for the composition right. That's real money you're leaving on the table if you haven't registered.

The numbers become significant when you factor in other sources. A single radio play on BBC Radio 1 can pay £50-150 in PRS royalties. A song used in a TV programme generates performing royalties every time it's broadcast. Even plays in public spaces — shops, restaurants, gyms — generate royalties that PRS collects and distributes.

PRS made record distributions to its members in 2024 — over £1 billion total. Your share might be modest at first, but it grows as your catalogue and audience grow.

How to Join and Register Your Works

Joining PRS costs a one-time fee of £100. You can apply online at prsformusic.com, and the process typically takes a few weeks for approval.

Once you're a member, you need to register each of your compositions — this is crucial and often overlooked. PRS doesn't automatically know which songs you've written. You need to log into your PRS account and register each work, including title, writers, splits, and any associated recordings (identified by ISRC codes).

If you co-write with other songwriters, each writer needs to be a PRS member (or member of an equivalent society in their country), and the splits need to be agreed and registered by all parties. Get this right from the start — retroactively sorting out splits is a headache you don't need.

PRS pays out quarterly, with a minimum payment threshold. Distributions cover different income sources at different times — streaming royalties are typically paid faster than broadcast royalties due to different data processing timelines.

PRS vs PPL vs MCPS: Understanding the Alphabet Soup

The collection society landscape confuses everyone. Here's the simplified version.

PRS for Music: collects performing royalties for songwriters and publishers when compositions are performed, broadcast, or streamed.

PPL: collects royalties for performers and recording rights holders when recordings are broadcast or played in public. If you performed on a recording, join PPL. It's free.

MCPS (Mechanical-Copyright Protection Society): collects mechanical royalties when compositions are reproduced — CDs, downloads, and increasingly, streaming. MCPS is administered by PRS, so joining PRS gives you access to MCPS services.

As an independent artist who writes and performs their own music, you need both PRS and PPL. They cover different rights and collect different money. PRS membership costs £100; PPL membership is free. There's no good reason not to join both immediately.

The combination of PRS, PPL, and your distributor ensures you're collecting all three major royalty types: recording royalties (distributor), performing royalties (PRS), and neighbouring rights royalties (PPL). Missing any one of these means money going uncollected.