Royalties

PLL and PRS

PPL collects and distributes royalties on behalf of performers and record companies for the use of their music, whereas PRS collects royalties for song writers, composers and publishers. Not only does this benefit the people in the music industry as they get a fair share of royalties, but it also means that businesses and radio stations only have to pay a small fee each year for their right to play music in their business and don't have to seek the permission from each individual musician whose music they want to play.

Mechanical licenses and royalties

A mechanical license refers to permissions granted to reproduce music onto any types of media, such as CD's and tapes to be put out on sale for the public. The music publisher will be the one to grant permission for the music to be reproduced. Mechanical royalties will be given to the recording artist, song writer and the publisher.

Performance rights and royalties

This type of royalty is used when music is performed live or broadcast. These licenses usually come in the form of a 'blanket license', which gives the licensee the right to play a particular PRO's entire collection in exchange for a set fee, rather than working out the charge for each separate song played. The performance royalty is paid to the songwriter and publisher.

Synchronization rights and royalties

This type of royalty refers to when a song is used on a television program, film, video, commercial or the radio. It is called this because you are 'synchronizing the composition as it is performed on the audio recording. The synchronization royalty is paid to songwriters and publishers.

MCPS

MCPS sits under the broader PRS for music brand, and licenses your mechanical rights and pays your mechanical royalties. MCPS is known as a collecting society because its main role is collecting money from music users in the UK who record music into TV and radio programmes, websites, feature films, CDs, records, and so on. MCPS collects royalties by issuing licences to music users, meaning they pay a fee which goes towards the royalties of composers, songwriters and music publishers. The 'mechanical right' administered by MCPS consists of two rights, the right to copy the work of musicians and the right to issue copies of the work in public. This means that every time a piece of music is copied, or a copy is issued to the public, royalties generated from its licensing will be collected by MCPS and paid onto the composers, song writers and publishers.