[CMA_Radioforum] Selector and PRS

[Steve Perry]

Hello All

Another thought about the Access Radio collective bargaining power, does
anyone intend to use Selector? We currently use it for scheduling our
music and RCS have done special rates for us as a charity and the
student radio network. Our deal is up for renewal in the year. Again I
will send them an e-mail to enquire generally if people are interested.

After our conversation about music copyright at the forum I have several
observations based on my dealings with PRS over the last few years. I
don't have much experience of PPL except that they are not very good at
responding to letters. I wrote to them about 18 months ago to remind
them that we needed a new licence and although they have confirmed
receiving my letter they have not yet replied. But I have been filling
in returns on a regular basis for PRS for several years now for our
satellite station on Sky Digital.


Non-Copyright Material

The first thing is that even if you think that music is deemed as out of
copyright non-copyright or copyright free then PRS usually still insist
that it is reported. Unless PRS say that you don't have to report
anything then don't assume that. Most stations use music of some form
that does need reporting such as jingles, commercials etc. Practically
unless you use no music at all PRS will want a report. As far as PRS are
concerned only they know what is in copyright and what is not.  Even if
the CD's state that they are "copyright free" PRS want a report. Mainly
because these are often from America. The problem is whilst they may be
copyright free in America this doesn't mean that they are copyright free
here. Basically PRS expect you to report everything and then they make
the decision as to whether it's in copyright or not.

To be fair to PRS it is very difficult to know whether something is in
copyright or not. Currently the law says that copyright exists for 70
years after the death of the composer and artist. So for something to be
out of copyright now the composer(s) and artist(s) would have been
pushing up daisies in 1931. Whilst we may know the age of a recording it
would be unusual to know the year in which all the artists or composers
died who were involved in that song. When you think about this if you
had ten songs all recorded at the same year would all probably have
different dates when they were out of copyright. Which is why PRS want
details of everything really because, chances are, that someone can
still pick up the royalty cheque


Foreign Material

Again this is no exception to reporting for PRS. PRS do have members
overseas and I believe that PRS have reciprocal agreements with overseas
copyright groups (such as BMI and ASCAP in the states) so technically
they can make copyrights to overseas artists wherever they are from. It
really come back to the point that only PRS know what is copyright and
what is not.


Returns

As a satellite station we only do returns around twice a year. To be
honest doing returns is a real pain because you need, composer,
publisher, catalogue number, artist, song title and exact playing time
(even if it's just a few seconds) for everything that you play. Whilst
you may think you'd hope that PRS ask for regular returns so that all
those local musicians that you are playing get a boost the amount of
work that would cause would sink you. If you are using a computerised
system such as Selector and can send an electronic copy then PRS don't
require exact times. (I think it's a bit of an incentive for you to send
it to them in their standard electronic format as it's easier for them).


However, in some ways I wish that we would do returns more often than
twice a year. That's because in those six months between returns
everyone forgets what to do. No matter how much coaching that you give
people someone invariably forgets the drill and plays something that
they don't have the details for or doesn't time the track properly etc.
I have spent many hours with the logging tapes trying to sort out duff
logs. My solution is to insist that people have the details written out
before every broadcast even if it isn't during a sample period and do
random checks on people. It won't make you popular but it will save you
a lot of work in the long run.

To be honest I have never personally received a query from PRS about one
of my reports. Even when I have realised at a later date that I
inadvertently dropped a huge clanger, they have never noticed yet. They
say they do randomly monitor though. 


Non-Broadcast Related Income

It was pointed out at the forum that whilst PRS differentiate between
broadcast and non-broadcast related revenue PPL do not. There is hope
that PPL could change though as until a couple of years a go PRS also
did not differentiate. That's is because of some negotiations that we
did on behalf of United Christian Broadcasters who also have a large
publishing arm. PRS wanted to charge UCB on the turnover of the whole
company despite the fact that only around 10% of that was broadcast
related. We successfully argued that that was akin to basing the PRS
payments for Rupert Murdoch's Sky TV on the circulation of his
newspapers such as the Sun and The Times. PRS ultimately agreed. As I
mentioned earlier, I am still waiting for PPL to issue us with a licence
and so we have not had that discussion with them yet. Hopefully they
will go the way of PRS and change the rules.

Any questions fee free to e-mail me. Hope all that has been useful and
not too overwhelming.

Steve Perry
Cross Rhythms