[cma-l] Community Radio Music Royalties

Fri Oct 29 11:28:34 BST 2010

Andrew
That is very useful information.
On a parallel tack, you seem to have conquered one of the big problems for CR - how to get advertisers knocking at your door.
Perhaps you should let the rest of the struggling masses into your secret.
There are perfectly legal ways of course of realigning your other income streams to take advantage of increased advertising revenue.
Ian 

Date: Thu, 28 Oct 2010 16:28:25 +0100
From: andrew.wass at talk21.com
Subject: Re: Community Radio Royalties
To: transplanfm at hotmail.com
CC: cma-l at commedia.org.uk

Hi Ian and all,
No sweat, but I did want to put our record straight (so to speak!!!) You asked about our PRS/PPL arrangements, the payment condition is actually as for small commercial radio stations ie based on ad income there is a lower limit involving a flat fee (which we exceed) which means that we have to do Qly reports re our ad income also 3/4 full monitoring days per annum, and we pay 3% of ad revenue to each agency (don't absolutely quote me on that, am not in the office today, so no ref figures) This means that we do a lot of extra monitoring work and are not convinced that artists that we play receive their dues.
All of our advertisers are small, local often fragile businesses and we are in the exceedingly rare position of having too many queuing because of our modest rates and impact, we have never had a sales person they come to us!
On a wider but related note, we feel that there should a better to measure the success and impact of Community Radio. Ofcom and at times colleagues seem to be only focussed on income sources..... We strongly advocate that its very much about what you do as a community concern thats crucial. We have a strong and sustained training programme run in newly refurbished dedicated premises, producing excellent results.  Training and support funding is dissapearing at an alarming rate in Gtr London (and elsewhere) right now. Ofcom has changed the rules for commercial radio (big time!) and it feels high time that the restrictictions are reviewed for our sector too.  
I am proud and confident in what we do and the way its done here, anyone is welcome to come and see the work, understand the philosophy and experience the passion behind it.

Best Wishes
Andy Wass
Administrator/Manager
The Panjabi Centre/Desi Radio
0788 1995570 

From: Ian Hickling <transplanfm at hotmail.com>
To: andrew.wass at talk21.com
Sent: Thursday, 28 October, 2010 13:25:27
Subject: Community Radio Royalties

Hi Andy
I do sincerely apolgise if I intimated that Desi does not pay its royalties as would appear to be required.
Reading my posting again, it does look too generalised.
My comment was intendeed to be in respect of some of the stations and RSLs that we have facilitated, but as you will appreciate, we have to draw a fine line between ensuring that the rules are followed - and retaining a Client!
Can I ask you - how exactly do you assess what you pay on the basis of the music you broadcast and its known or presumed source?
I feel that this would be useful information so that we could all get a practical feel for how the present legislation works.
ian

Date: Thu, 28 Oct 2010 12:21:21 +0100
From: andrew.wass at talk21.com
To: transplanfm at hotmail.com
CC: cma-l at commedia.org.uk
Subject: Re: [cma-l] Community Radio Royalties

Hi Ian et al,
Just want to assure Ian and anyone else that Desi Radio in Southall and Im sure a number of other stations DO pay royalties to both PRS and PPL, we pay dearly in fact! 
I have a number of gripes about this, the biggest is that I doubt that any of the writers/artists that feature on Desi's output see a penny of it! The range of music that we play is huge, and certainly the folk and devotional music that  we play is traditional and unattributed. We also believe that much of the music originates from outside of the territories that PRS/PPL represent. We've never played a Lady Gaga track of course..... but hope she raises a glass to us on occasion.... literally at our expense.

Sorry not to contribute more often, as we all know theres plenty to do!
Good fortune to all.
 Fraternally yours...
Andy Wass
Administrator/Manager
The Panjabi Centre/Desi Radio

From: Ian Hickling <transplanfm at hotmail.com>
To: Peter Vautier <admin at londonhuayu.co.uk>; Trevor Lockwood <trevor at felixstoweradio.co.uk>
Cc: cma-l <cma-l at commedia.org.uk>
Sent: Wednesday, 27 October, 2010 8:42:04
Subject: [cma-l] Community Radio Royalties

I'm in a cleft stick here.
I believe that people who make music should be properly rewarded for their art - but at the same time the present system appears to be illogical, secretive and unfair.
Has any broadcaster ever told the societies that they're not paying their exhorbitant arbitrary and unexplained fees and to go ahead and sue?
Bill will know that only last week he managed to ensure that a new broadcaster was only charged pro-rata for two months' royalties when the organisation concerned had insisted - would you beleive - on a full 12-month fee for two months' activity.
Peter raises the point about using music from other countries and how Royalties are and should be paid.
As I understand it - and I may be quite wrong - there are parallel agreements throughout the world with other royalty collection agencies.
We provide facilities for stations serving Asian communities and they never ever pay PRS, MCPS and PPL as far as I can see. 
If English-language stations in the UK are required to pay, then why are these equally-licensed broadcasters apparently exempted because their music orignated in another country?
Why doesn't Ofcom collect these royalties - if indeed they are fully authenticated in Law - at the same time as the Licence Fees?

Ian Hickling
Partner
transplan UK

From: admin at londonhuayu.co.uk
Date: Tue, 26 Oct 2010 17:16:28 +0100
To: trevor at felixstoweradio.co.uk
CC: cma-l at commedia.org.uk
Subject: Re: [cma-l] PRS Community Radio Licence Application and FAQ - your feedback required

I'd second that -  a very large proportion of our music is from Mainland China, which isn't under the PRS/PPL license.  
It would also be good if these artists actually got paid royalties for their work, since it is so hard to make money from music in China, and since the record companies over there have been so supportive by giving us interviews, etc.

Peter Vautier
London Chinese Radio

On Tue, Oct 26, 2010 at 11:56 AM, <trevor at felixstoweradio.co.uk> wrote:

Bill

I was not aware of any stated policy about the CMA and PRS relationship.

In the past I've wondered whether CMA is now large enough to consider creating its own version of PRS, working with that organisation, but achieving economies of scale by having one application/funding stream.

My real concern with the present system is that at Felixstowe Radio we have a large speech content, and we also play many tracks from artists that are not yet registered with PRS. Our output is not specifically recorded by PPL - so we pay them more than we should, and our artists don't get to sniff the barmaid's apron.

Is it true that the PRS boss earns £600K?

Trevor

----- Original Message -----
From: Bill Best
Sent: 26/10/10 10:38 AM
To: cma-l at commedia.org.uk
Subject: [cma-l] PRS Community Radio Licence Application and FAQ - your feedback required

Hi  Jaqui's not available today to address the issues that some of you have recently brought up on the list as she's attending a meeting at DCMS to represent the sector to the Digital Radio Marketing Group. Yesterday Jaqui was at the "Community Radio and Digitally Networked Business" workshop in Port Talbot and met a number of CMA members there.  On 15 October Jaqui and I attended a meeting at PRS for Music to discuss issues around music licensing for the sector - in particular about MCPS rates which have hitherto not yet been charged.  PRS will feedback to the CMA about MCPS rates when the relevant PRS board documentation is completed later this week.  I'm delighted to say that talks with PRS were productive and the CMA has re-established a positive working dialogue with PRS.  In the meantime PRS are currently reviewing their Community Radio documentation in advance of refreshing it with the new licence information and
 updated PRS rates. Are there any frequently asked questions or items that station managers are particularly interested in that require attention or further explanation?  The PRS Community Radio Licence Application and FAQ is here:  http://bit.ly/dwnsAF  Please get back to me with any feedback.  Regards  Bill --  Community Media Association http://www.commedia.org.uk/ http://twitter.com/community_media Facebook Fans: http://bit.ly/cog8n5 _______________________________________________  cma-l mailing list - cma-l at commedia.org.uk  Community Media Association - www.commedia.org.uk _______________________________________________  To manage your mailing list subscription please visit: http://mailman.commedia.org.uk/mailman/listinfo/cma-l

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野火烧不尽，春风吹又生

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