A number of songwriters including Robert Fripp and Jim and William Reid of the Jesus And Mary Chain are suing PRS over its handling of royalties for live performances.
Their main gripe is that the Performing Rights Society – which has a near monopoly on royalty payments in the UK - gives preferential deals to successful songwriters at the same time as levying high administration costs on those at grass roots level. They argue that the ‘sweetheart’ deals that PRS cuts with big artists are effectively subsidised by smaller songwriters who, if they were to leave PRS and deal directly with agents and promoters face huge amounts of red tape and prohibitive fees.
