October 22, 2018

PRS for Music says that many more dance music creators will receive royalties from performances of their music played by DJs in nightclubs, as PRS for Music and PPL expand their distribution policies to include data generated from MRT, in turn improving the accuracy of royalty distributions.

The policy changes come following a year-long nationwide pilot carried out by PRS for Music and PPL. The pilot tested the accuracy of MRT in identifying music played by DJs and evaluated how the data gathered could be used to supplement existing distribution methods.

Members of both organisations will receive their first royalty payment from data collected and reported via MRT in nightclubs this year.

A small music recognition device installed in participating nightclubs, listens to the music a DJ plays and analyses it against a database of millions of individual sound recordings, creating highly accurate set list information. PRS for Music and PPL then use this information to distribute royalties back to the creators of those recordings and works.

Over 31 million seconds of music have been captured by MRT in participating nightclubs so far, with up to 95% of all music played successfully reported back to PRS for Music and PPL.

PRS for Music says that the use of MRT in nightclubs has potential to grow and is calling for more venues to adopt the devices and encourage members to upload their recordings and metadata to chosen tech partner, DJ Monitor, to ensure continued positive progression for the future. To read PRS for Music’s press release in full, click here.