I've been making some music with a friend on and off for many years, and we're about to release a vinyl single which should also be on iTunes. Even without any publicity as yet, a well-known Welsh radio DJ has twice played a track off our Soundcloud page, so once the single is officially out we're expecting a bit of radioplay (promo CDs and publicity are ready to go, courtesy of the label).

My friend/partner-in-crime has had solo releases over the years and is a member of PRS. He's registered the single tracks and the one (currently) on Soundcloud with both of our names as 50% composer/author. I also have my own solo side-project which may well arouse some interest once the single comes out, so I think I should join PRS myself in case that gets some radioplay as well (in fact, the same DJ played a couple of my tracks from a demo CD I sent him a few years ago).

My only foray into this kind of thing was about 20 years ago when a band I was in released a cassette. We signed up to PPL and later got a cheque (not much, but it was welcome!). I find the whole PRS/MCPS/PPL thing very confusing - can anybody offer any advice? I've had a bit of a read on the PRS website and I think I can join for £50 - is that right?

Any advice at all will be very welcome!

I'd join SAS, they always get your money from any country, sometimes if it hasn't even been played.

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'You know it's a bad role when Nic Cage passes on it.'

It's probably worth joining, just in case the record takes off. When i joined you had to provide some evidence of releases and gigging activity, though i suspect they'll not be too fussy as it's all potential earnings for them. All the details are on their website.

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Quote gofodwr:

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I've had a bit of a read on the PRS website and I think I can join for £50 - is that right?

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No it's wrong

It appears to currently cost £30 to join. It says so here:
https://www.prsformusic.com/creators/joiningus/join_us/Pages/Writerapplica tionform.aspx

(This is new... for many years it only cost a tenner to join - and you didn't even have to pay that up front, they simply deducted it from your first royalties..... before that, it used to cost £100 to join. So £30 still seems good value. Not sure when the £30 came in, as the change does not appear to have been announced in any member newsletters or anything...)

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~~~ A weasel hath not such a deal of spleen as you are tossed with! www.feline1.co.uk ~~~

Interesting. Can someone just explain how to join ppl and mcps? Someone told me ppl is $35 for the first year then 50 after that but free if you take out mcps membership at the same time?

Maybe if you also join prs at the same time there's some kind of deal? But isn't there some rule where you have to have been on the bbc 3 times before you can officially join?

I did try ringing but couldn't find the number anywhere and they were reluctant to tell me on the phone (maybe cos I wasn't a member?).



Thanks.

eh? are you being deliberately silly?
Who is the person who told you such things? I should like their name and addresses

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~~~ A weasel hath not such a deal of spleen as you are tossed with! www.feline1.co.uk ~~~

Ah, I see - the £50 I saw refers to joint PRS/MCPS membership, £30 sounds quite reasonable.

Can anyone explain simply to me the difference between PRS and MCPS and how this is relevant to someone who is about to get radioplay from a single (and possibly from Soundcloud tracks)?

Last time I looked, MCPS membership was £50.

MCPS pay you "mechanicals" if a recorded version of your work is pressed on vinyl, CD or sold as downloads.
PRS pay you royalties if your work is performed on stage, or a recording of it is played in public or broadcast or downloaded or streamed.

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~~~ A weasel hath not such a deal of spleen as you are tossed with! www.feline1.co.uk ~~~