# PRS and MCPS Royalties informations (UK)



## FabTramp (Sep 12, 2018)

Hi Everyone, 

I am writing to ask your help to clear my mind about royalties. 

I am new in this industry and I have only just started scoring my first short film. I have some questions about royalties in the UK. 

On the PRS website it's written:

PRS pay royalties to our members when their works are:

broadcast on TV or radio
performed or played in public, whether live or through a recording
streamed or downloaded
MCPS pay royalties to their members when their music is:

copied as physical products, such as CDs and DVDs
streamed or downloaded
used in TV, film or radio 

This short film won't be broadcasted on TV and will be mainly streamed on socials, youtube and short film websites. The director also wants to bring it to some short film festivals. 


Anyway, my questions are:


1) Should I apply for both PRS and MCPS as stream and download are mentioned in both? They cost around £100 each. 

2) Would I get paid royalties if the film and the music on its own gets played on sites like youtube, facebook, twitter, instagram, soundcloud, spotify etc etc? 

3) When the film will be finished do I register the tracks through the PRS website? How would they know if the film or the music has been played online? Will there be a specific identification number for each track?

4) Subscribing to PRS and MCPS, am I the publisher of the song so am entitled to have the 100% of royalties?

I am aware that my earnings with a short film through royalties will be NOTHING, but I just wanted to clear my doubts and to know if this is the way royalties work. 

Thank you so much everybody for your help. Also, I am reading a book called: All you need to know about the Music Business by Donald S. Passman which is an incredible book full of information that covers all the general aspects of the music industry! I definitely suggest it.


Cheers !!


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## Daryl (Sep 12, 2018)

FabTramp said:


> 1) Should I apply for both PRS and MCPS as stream and download are mentioned in both? They cost around £100 each.


My understanding is that the film will be available for download. Not your music. So MCPS doesn't apply.


FabTramp said:


> 2) Would I get paid royalties if the film and the music on its own gets played on sites like youtube, facebook, twitter, instagram, soundcloud, spotify etc etc?


Yes.


FabTramp said:


> 3) When the film will be finished do I register the tracks through the PRS website? How would they know if the film or the music has been played online? Will there be a specific identification number for each track?


Yes, you need to register the cue sheet. Quite often the film company does this, but it's better if you offer, because then you will know that it's correct.


FabTramp said:


> 4) Subscribing to PRS and MCPS, am I the publisher of the song so am entitled to have the 100% of royalties?


As you aren't eligible for MCPS payments, 100% ownership on PRS is sufficient. 

However, you should try to join MCPS as a Publisher, if you can, for various reasons. You'll probably fail, but it is worth attempting...!


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## will_m (Sep 13, 2018)

+1 For what Daryl said.

Its all good practice and will get you used to the PRS system etc, however I wouldn't expect anything on the royalties front. 

For example I scored a short last year that went on to about 150+ festivals around the world as well as socials fairly recently and I've not seen a penny in royalties.

Also important to make sure a music cue sheet is filled out by yourself/production. The bigger / better festivals will ask for one and it helps PRS when they come to work out what's been played.


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## Daryl (Sep 13, 2018)

will_m said:


> +1 For what Daryl said.
> 
> For example I scored a short last year that went on to about 150+ festivals around the world as well as socials fairly recently and I've not seen a penny in royalties.


Most festivals have an exemption from paying Royalties. As do films broadcast in "theaters" in the US, for that matter.


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## will_m (Sep 13, 2018)

Daryl said:


> Most festivals have an exemption from paying Royalties. As do films broadcast in "theaters" in the US, for that matter.



Yeah I know, I wasn't expecting anything really, its the same with trailers in theatres.

Just making the OP aware that there likely wont be a cheque at the end of it all. Same goes for anything from social media really unless you do really well with Adrev on Youtube.


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## FabTramp (Sep 29, 2018)

Sorry for this late reply. Thank you guys for your answers, you helped me clearing my head!!


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## PeterBaumann (Nov 30, 2018)

*I posted this on my thread to do with filling out cue sheets, but have just discovered this thread so will move the post to here instead*

I'm in the process of going through a few projects as I haven't had time to do the paperwork until now. The music has ended up on social media campaigns or as soundtracks to short films hosted on vimeo/youtube. Before forwarding them to the production companies, I called PRS member services to check where exactly the (small) production companies were supposed to send the completed cue sheets in order to have the music usage logged on the PRS/MCPS systems.

The PRS guy said that the production company cannot send MCPS cue sheets directly - it has to go through a distributor. Obviously for TV and theatrical releases that's not so much of a problem, but if you're doing any kind of YouTube/Vimeo web-release, apparently you can't just have the production company submit them directly to have the details logged on the system? And yes I know that in order to actually make any money back on online stuff it has to be streamed a gazillion times, but I wanted to make sure it was all registered correctly anyway. 

If this is the case, does that mean that all the big blockbuster film trailers that get released on youtube with millions of views don't register cue sheets with MCPS because the content is hosted on a streaming site? Or have I completely misunderstood this...?


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## PeterBaumann (Dec 3, 2018)

Does anyone have any experience of this for submissions relating to independent films released online?


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