PRS for Music Releases New Online Music Licence

PRS for Music, a royalty collecting group based in the UK, has released details about their newest Joint Online Licence (JOL), which has been published online at Prsformusic.com (pdf). The current JOL expires on June 30, and the new deal covers rates charged for download services and subscriptions.

For a download, the rate remains unchanged from the previous JOL at 8 percent of gross revenue. But streaming rates for services like Last.fm will be online later this month, and are of greater importance, given the rising popularity of music that is listenable for free. Spotify, Myspace, and probably Google are just some of the companies that will be affected by the forthcoming “music on demand” rates.

PRS For Music has over 60,000 members, who voiced their support for the royalty group in March against Google. Millions of YouTube videos were removed due to a failed deal over licensing fees. Google’s proposed rates were called “unfair”, but the search giant stated that it couldn’t lose money every single time a song was streamed.

While 8 percent doesn’t seem like much, PRS for Music said digital revenue had almost doubled in the past year to $26.1 million, which suggests that around 2 million would get paid in royalties. PRS for Music gets 12 percent commission, which leaves artists with a 88 percent of all download revenue. Compared to record labels, which pay artists only a fraction of collected royalties, PRS for Music is better for musicians.

The most important rates, however, which regard “music on demand”,  are still to be seen. Streaming services have been struggling with the recording industry to properly license music so fans can listen for free, to the point where some have shut down due to accumulated debt.

What do you think is a fair rate to pay an artist for every time you listen to a song for free?

Source: NME