PRS says give us your money

This was an article in Radio Today (www.radiotoday.co.uk) and I think it sums up how PRS just don’t get how to make money for their musicians and why we would all (including musicians) be better off if they thought things through a bit more….


Give us your money or turn your radio off

That's the line PRS says on a regular basis. Maybe not quite as harsh as that but that's what it boils down to.

The whole saga of whether it's right or wrong for PRS to charge work-places a fee to listen to the radio has raged on and on over the years, and this weekend it hit the police force in Hampshire.

Imagine being the person who had to ring up the police and tell them they were breaking the law?

Excuse me officer, do you listen to the radio at work? Well I'm placing you under arrest until you turn it off or hand over a large bag of used notes. How much PC Plod has to pay to listen to the radio depends on, and I quote, "the number of days in the year music is played in the workplace, canteens or staff rooms; the number of half-hour units per day music is played in the workplace, the number of employees in the workplace to whom the music is audible and the number of employees to whom the canteen/room is available."

Simples, then.

But all they need to do is ring up PRS for Music and ask them how much money they would like. And that's not all. A simple browse on the PRS website tells me there is a cost involved in playing the radio in Churches, Cinemas, Clubs, Schools, Hairdressers, Health Centres, Hotels, Gyms, Cafes, Shops and even on the phone. I guess we already knew most of that, but over the past few years PRS have been raising their game and actively visiting and calling these places to make sure they pay up or turn US off.

Commercial Radio, now more than ever, needs people listening. It doesn't matter how many people listen to the BBC, they get their money to operate regardless, but if PRS are going around making people turn OFF their radio sets in places where we enjoy a large audience, it makes PRS yet another obstacle for radio to overcome.

It puts PRS right up there with other potential future radio killers.

As for Hampshire Police, will they pay up and continue to listen to Play Radio, BBC Radio Solent or thisisheart, or will they just switch off, like so many other establishments? Dep Chief Con Cole told the local newspaper: “Hampshire Constabulary does not believe taxpayers would approve of the expenditure of public money for this purpose in police offices. Therefore, the use of radio and television is not allowed within the constabulary, except in those rare cases where access to broadcast material is essential for operational reasons.”

Great. Let’s hope any police staff in Hampshire aren’t currently filling in a RAJAR diary.



Published in Radio Today on 17th August 2009.