PRS and PPL lauch a new joint venture for public peformance licensing

In the United Kingdom, PRS for Music and Phonographic Performance Limited (PPL) have confirmed that, following a strategic review commenced in 2015, the two companies plan to create a joint venture. The new company, jointly and equally owned by PPL and PRS for Music, would focus on serving all PPL and PRS for Music UK public performance licensing customers for both music and sound recording rights. PPL is the music licensing company which works on behalf of record companies and performers to license recorded music played in public. PRS for Music represents the rights of over 115,000 songwriters, composers and music publishers in the UK. 

The two CMOs say that this will further streamline the experience for customers obtaining public performance licences, allowing them to secure a joint PPL and PRS for Music licence |"with a single phone call or a few clicks on the web, paid for with a single invoice." Over the coming months, PRS for Music and PPL will be undertaking the necessary preparatory work for the joint venture "Including engagement with regulators and other key stakeholders."

It is anticipated that the new company would start licensing in 2017, followed by a 12-month period during which the full transition of public performance licensing would be completed. It is likely that the new joint venture will be located in a UK city outside the M25.

Robert Ashcroft, Chief Executive, PRS for Music, said, “Creating a single point of contact for our UK public performance customers would allow us to significantly simplify music licensing for UK businesses. It is in our members’ and customers’ interests to ensure that our licensing is ever more accurate and efficient. A joint venture between our organisations would be a landmark event for both societies.”

Peter Leathem, CEO, PPL commented, “Both our organisations firmly believe that the proposed joint venture would be a very positive development for both our customers and our members, building on the successful joint licensing solutions and other joint working initiatives that PPL and PRS for Music have delivered over the last few years.”

For an interesing analysis of the cost efficiency of PRS and PPL see MBW here

PRS for Music and YouTube sign licensing deal

UK Publisher and songwriter collection society PRS for Music and YouTube have  signed a multi-year licence covers over 130 territories The licence covers the use of the "significant repertoire" represented by PRS for Music in videos streamed on the video platform e.g. official music videos and content, live footage, soundtracks and user generated content (UGC). The licence also includes the rights to a growing range of independent repertoire available through PRS for Music’s IMPEL initiative such as David Bowie (Bucks Music), Justin Timberlake (Imagem), Lou Reed (Spirit) and Goldie (Westbury) covering more than 130 territories in Europe, Middle East and North Africa.

Robert Ashcroft, Chief Executive PRS for Music, said, “Streaming is a key growth area for PRS for Music, helping drive our online revenues to over £50M in 2012. YouTube’s vast reach around the world offers our publishers and songwriters a unique stage and music lovers access to millions of songs. I am delighted we have reached such an important multi-territory agreement. The issue of remuneration from streaming services remains a key one for our members and the further evolution of our licensing relationship with YouTube will help ensure continued growth in royalties for our members from one of the world’s leading video platforms.”
 
Chris Maxcy, Director of Global Music Partnerships at YouTube continued, “We're delighted to renew our successful partnership with the PRS for Music. This means the UK's music publishers, songwriters and composers can continue to reach new and existing fans on YouTube and the passionate YouTube community can keep enjoying listening to music and discovering new artists online.”

This is from a press release - of course -  hence the glowing tributes - more at http://www.prsformusic.com/Pages/default.aspx

PRS for Music, STIM and GEMA to collaborate on new venture

PRS for Music (UK), STIM (Sweden) and GEMA (Germany) have announced a major collaboration that the three music collection societies say will simplify both national and pan-European music rights licensing and processing. As part of the initiative, GEMA will become a shareholder and customer in International Copyright Enterprise AB (ICE), the company founded by PRS for Music and STIM in 2007.  ICE will extend its current copyright repertoire management services to include the processing of transactional licences to Digital Music Services, both for its shareholder societies and for other society customers. In due course ICE will also create a state of the art audio visual database for film and television music processing. 

PRS for Music, STIM and GEMA will in parallel establish a licensing hub that will combine the national repertoires of all three collecting societies as well as providing licensing services to other holders of multi-territorial European online rights, both publishers and societies. The combined repertoire available to license through the new hub will be amongst the largest of its kind in Europe, providing access to millions of works for download, subscription and streaming services.

Slated for delivery in 2014, the proposed joint venture will use the copyright and online processing services from ICE, who in turn will work  in tandem with the planned Global Repertoire Database (GRD) and the partners say that the new venture will deliver benefits that include:  

• Faster and more accurate invoicing and royalty payments, aiding both creators and music users

• Significantly fewer licensing negotiations for digital music services operating and launching across Europe

• A reduction in processing costs and an increase in accuracy as duplicate systems and processes are combined

• The ability to include other societies repertoires on an equal basis expanding licensing capability and bringing cultural diversity to European digital music services

Commenting on the announcement PRS for Music Chief Executive Robert Ashcroft said: “This partnership will enable dramatic improvements in licensing and rights management across Europe by reducing complexity and increasing efficiency. It will accelerate the growth and development of the digital music market, while ensuring that songwriters, composers and music publishers are paid the right amount of money, faster, more accurately and at lower cost. This is good news for everyone involved, from our members to the digital music service providers” and "Kenth Muldinm, Chief Executive of STIM, commented:  “I am confident that our partnership will create a modern and more cost-efficient management of music rights in Europe. This initiative is simply a response to market demand – music needs to be distributed anywhere, anytime and on any device, to the benefit of both consumers and creators. Our joint aim is to make music licensing and royalty payments more efficiently– in short to encourage market entry for legal services and allow music lovers to enjoy music” with Carsten Drachmann, Chief Executive of ICE, saying: "The is a great step forward for the "one stop shop" of online licensing in Europe, and ICE is proud to deliver the back office services, technology and solutions that enables this joint venture and helps reduce complexity and cost, and secures a fast and accurate return to rights holders." 

The collaboration is subject to approval by competition regulators. 

http://www.prsformusic.com/Pages/default.aspx  / https://www.gema.de/en/ / http://www.stim.se/