PRS For Music have announced they will now pay out royalties for online streaming on a monthly basis instead of quarterly.
The body, which is the UK’s primary collecting society for songwriters, composers and music publishers, will now distribute money to its members in what it says will be “more timely, transparent and aligned with how music is consumed”.
The change will be implemented from August 15, with streaming income from Spotify, Apple Music and YouTube among the platforms that are accounted for in the change.
PRS say that online streaming amounted to 28.4 per cent of all royalties they paid out in 2024, and they project that a change in their administration rate for their multi-territory online licensing framework will return an additional £47million to members by 2030.
Andrea Czapary Martin, CEO for PRS for Music, has said: “Monthly payouts is the natural next step for a society focussed on getting more members, more money – one that not only listens to what our members need but also reflects the pace and scale of today’s music industry.”
“This is about giving creators faster access to the money they’ve earned and the insights they need to understand how their music is performing. We’re not just responding to change, we’re driving it.”
Tim Arber, PRS for Music’s Director of Operational Improvement, added: “We can leverage a review of our technology, our processes and our data to get money to members sooner, while being sensitive that we need to make sure that that it’s in a way that works for our members… that change is part of the major programme we’re running, our end-to-end distribution programme, which is fundamentally about ensuring we continue to deliver a world-leading royalty distribution service, in a rapidly evolving music landscape.”
In 2022, PRS For Music announced that it would reduce its annual donations to the charitable PRS Foundation by 60 per cent, which over 50 organisations in the music industry protested against, signing an open letter urging them to reverse their decision.
Last year, Robert Fripp and The Jesus And Mary Chain were among a host of artists to launch a lawsuit against PRS over songwriter royalties. The case related to live performances, with PRS accused of levying high administration costs for smaller-level artists against preferential treatment for bigger acts.
