Alliance drives hard bargain on music licensing costs for club

In 2012 Sports Clubs will lose their exemption to for PPL (Phonographic Performance Limited) music licences. This means that clubs will need both a PRS (Performing Rights Society) and PPL licence. However, it’s not all bad news. The Sport and Recreation Alliance has been working hard to negotiate a tariff that works for sports clubs up and down the country; and new PRS and PPL tariffs are due to be unveiled soon.

Previously, the cheapest PRS tariff would be for the use of a radio for background music, which would have cost a club £90.74. If you also had a TV (£91.24) and stereo system (£200.71) the figures soon added up. Under the new tariff a sports clubs will be able to use all of these for just £42 per year. While this price will nearly double when you add the PPL tariff, for a small club this means two licences for as much music as you want for the year for less than the price of radio under the PRS tariff for 2011.

Bigger clubs will naturally pay more for their licenses, but, while an average PRS license costs £340 currently, the 2012 license will be capped well below this level for PPL and PRS tariffs. This is a significant improvement compared to original proposals for community buildings which could have seen a PPL license cost 1% of a club’s income.

There is good news for clubs running special featured events (SFE) such as parties and discos through the year too. PPL removed sports clubs from its SFE tariff following our negotiations with them. Based on an eight hour events for 50 people, the sports club tariff is set to be just 1/35th of the tariff proposed in the SFE consultation. There will also be an all-you-can eat option for clubs running special featured events such as parties and discos through the year.

Share this article:

Back to all news