Dear Member,
I am writing to you because nothing is more important, either to PRS, or to me as its Chief Executive Officer, than the accurate distribution of your money; yet over the past year we have experienced a number of instances where we have, regrettably, fallen short of this requirement.
By way of background, you will no doubt be aware that in recent years we have had to deal with significant growth in the amount of data we process. When I joined PRS at the beginning of 2010, the total number of music usages reported in the previous year was no more than fifteen million, yet this month’s April distribution alone is made up of about two trillion.
In response to the challenges posed by this significant increase, derived not only from the growth of streaming, but also from better reporting in other areas of the business, we introduced new technology, and new business processes, at the end of 2016. These changes, however, were clearly not fully effective, as we have since identified a small, but significant number of errors in both the April and July 2017 distributions.
We worked hard throughout 2017 to eliminate any possible recurrence of such errors, and by December had every reason to believe that we had reached a satisfactory conclusion.
We were devastated, therefore, in the April 2018 distribution, to discover three new errors. We understand how they happened and how they escaped the controls we had put in place, but this is not enough; we need to be in a position to assure members that both our processes and our controls are completely reliable.
I sincerely believe that, despite this most recent setback, we are now gaining control of the situation and that the underlying issues will be resolved. I know how important it is to get this right and have dedicated some of our most senior and experienced staff to resolving the matter. I would also like to assure you that it is my highest personal priority too.
Members will be notified directly of any distribution errors that affect them individually over the course of this week. We will explain in detail, through the usual membership channels, both what we are doing, and any action required of them, on an individual basis.
The period under investigation dates back to the April 2017 distribution. Given the clear progress we made in both the October and December 2017 distributions, and the nature of the errors in both the July 2017 and April 2018 distributions, I am reasonably certain that we have only to complete a successful July 2018 distribution to put these historic problems behind us. In any event, I would like to assure you that this, along with the prevention of any future errors, has our full attention.
I both appreciate, and deeply regret, the impact of this situation on individual members and am determined to resolve the underlying causes as quickly as possible.
I remain confident in our ability to do so and will update you as we make further progress.
Sincerely,
Robert Ashcroft
Chief Executive Officer
PRS for Music
