How do I pay royalties via the Making Music royalty scheme?

Last modified on: 06/12/2010

You can use the Making Music scheme to pay any royalties due on performances of copyright music in venues which don’t have a PRS for Music licence. We ask you when you renew your membership to declare any royalties due retrospectively on performances given between 1 November and 31 October. You select the corresponding fee from a tariff sheet according to the audience size. You calculate your royalty payment accordingly, and submit a copy of the programme for each performance declared, together with a PRS for Music declaration slip giving details of the event.

Step by step

We ask you at the end of the calendar year to declare any performances of music in copyright that you give in venues which do not have PRS for Music licences. You do this at the same time as renewing your membership and insurance.
We ask you to declare the number of such performances between 1 November and 31 October of the preceding period.
You calculate the correct royalty fees to pay by referring to a tariff based on the number of people admitted into the audience for each event.
The tariff is charged at a flat fee per event, and not for individual pieces of music. You do not need to declare concerts in which no copyright music was performed.
You should also return (either together with your renewal instructions, or at any point during the year as convenient to you) a PRS for Music declaration slip completed for each event declared, and attached to a programme for the event. Declaration slips are available to download and print in this section
Information on the tariff for the current or period 1 November 2010 to 31 October 2011 is also available in this section for your information.