First off I’d like to say a big ‘Hi’ and thanks to my new subscribers this week, many of whom are onboard following the ukulele workshop I ran recently. I’m working on a bit of bonus content to go with my last blog that will only go out to the subscribers on my mailing list, so watch out for the email that’ll be coming out in the next few days!
This week has been a ‘fun’ week of electronic wrangling. I joined the Performing Rights Society (or PRS) as a songwriter. It’s a significant step towards a longer term goal that I have with regards to my own music, and it’s a level of seriousness that I’m not generally accustomed to.
So firstly, you might not even know what The Performing Rights Society actually does, and why it’s important, so let’s start with that.
What does the PRS do?
Whenever a piece of music gets used, the songwriter, composer and publisher (if one exists) are entitled to royalties. The PRS is the mechanism by which this happens. That mechanism takes many forms. The one all of us have encountered, but almost certainly without realising it, is that any business that uses recorded music, or holds live music events must hold a PRS licence. So when you've been having a hair do, listening to the radio, or rocking out at the O2, there's a PRS licence in place.
Some concert venues pay a percentage of box office takings per show, as opposed to holding a ‘cover all’ licence. The PRS collect performance data from submissions, surveys and via other digital collection methods and apportions the fees that they collect to the interested parties. This happens worldwide, so as you can imagine the maths is pretty staggering.
So why have I joined?
So, why have I joined? My biggest gig of original music was to about 40 people in a rugby club in Alton, that’s not going to rake it in, is it?
Well… no. It isn’t. I’m not really under the impression that however I develop my songwriting adventure is going to lead anywhere significant. Right now I’m interested in the process of it all. I’ll take a step, see where it leads me, and then take another, BUT, I did realise a long time ago that if you’re going to head out onto the dance floor, those first steps are important ones.
Registering my work with the PRS is a significant step towards being a legitimate artist. I might at some point, receive some credit for something I’ve written and performed. So I’m in the process of registering all my existing work, so that when I play it, I can tell them I’ve played it, and I’ll be due a royalty… even if it is going to be pretty small. Depends where it gets used though!
Like I said, it’s not the money, it’s the ‘trying to do it right’ and learning how all this stuff works. There are copyright things, and other performance registrations to work on too, as well as all the normal, shiny stuff like, I dunno, actually playing and sharing music, which is kind of the real point. Fame and fortune are pretty unlikely, but imagine if something cool did happen with something I’d written and I hadn’t taken the proper steps to own it…?
So for now it’s back to electronic wrangling, learning some of those dance steps and trying not to tie my shoelaces together before I glide on out there. More on this little project as it unfurls.
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