Music Licensing

Music is valuable to businesses

PPL and PRS for Music are two different music licensing organisations with a single aim – to ensure music creators and performers are fairly paid for the public use of their music.

PPL distributes money to record companies and performers from the exploitation of music. PRS for Music distributes money to songwriters, composers and publishers from the exploitation of lyrics and musical composition.

In order to play music in public two forms of music licence are usually required: from PPL and from PRS for Music. This is a legal requirement and failure to obtain both music licenses, where necessary, may result in legal action.

PRS for Music Licence

PRS for Music is a not-for-profit music licensing organisation that collects royalties on behalf of its 60,000 songwriter, composer and publisher members whenever their music is played, performed, broadcast or reproduced, while helping businesses and organisations get the permission they need to play music.

The Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 says that permission is required from the copyright owner in order to play music in public - i.e. outside the home and domestic life. A PRS for Music licence makes this easy, allowing millions of copyright songs to be played live or by any recorded means (for example, on CD or jukebox) or via the internet, TV or radio.

We have agreements in place with our counterparts in most of the world’s countries, allowing us to collect royalties on each other’s behalf. So our Music Licence can cover the use of music from all over the world.

PPL Licence

PPL is the UK based music licensing company that collects domestic and international revenues from UK television, radio and digital media as well as public performance income from business such as bars, shops, offices and restaurants that play recorded music. This money is then distributed to the performers and record companies who produced the music. PPL does not retain a profit for itself.

The Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 says that permission is required from the copyright owner in order to play music in public - i.e. outside the home and domestic life. PPL  offers  thousands of licensing solutions to thousands of businesses every year - giving access to literally millions of songs - at a very low cost.   

Further information on obtaining music licenses from both organisations can be found online: