Blur drummer Dave Rowntree has lost an appeal against the PRS in a case over the distribution of so-called ‘black box’ royalties.
What are ‘black box’ royalties? Good question. Well, they refer to the increasing number of live gigs where PRS takes a cut from the ticket sales but has not been able to allocate it to the appropriate songwriters because of a lack of information about a setlist. And it’s a growing problem – according to PRS’s own website, there are over 106,000 gigs where performance royalties have been collected but not distributed. Most of these are from small-scale gigs in grassroots venues.
