Music Royalty Organisation Distributes Over £1 Billion for Songwriters

One of Britain’s largest music royalty collectors has exceeded the £1 billion revenue mark for the first time in its 110-year history. PRS for Music, a music collective management organisation representing the rights of more than 165,000 songwriters, composers, and music publishers, including Sam Smith, and Shania Twain, announced record royalty distributions on Tuesday. It said that it paid out a record £943.6 million of royalties for songwriters, composers, and music publishers. The company collects and pays royalties when a member’s music is played in public, broadcast, downloaded, streamed, or performed live both in the UK and around the world. A Billion-Pound Society The Performing Right Society, later PRS for Music, was founded in 1914 by a group of music publishers, including William Boosey and Oliver Hawkes, to protect the value of copyright and help provide an income for composers, songwriters, and music publishers....