University & Students Union Music Licence

Ready to play music? Great!

Now all we need are some details from you so we can get in touch, set up TheMusicLicence and have you playing music in no time.

PPL PRS Ltd was created to provide customers with a streamlined music licensing service – TheMusicLicence – with a single point of contact to make it easier to legally play and perform music in public. PPL PRS Ltd is equally owned by PPL and PRS for Music.

PPL PRS Ltd started trading in 2018. Prior to 2018, businesses and organisations would have had to purchase two separate licences from PPL and PRS for Music instead.

PPL and PRS for Music are both collective management organisations. They issue licences and collect royalties for certain uses of copyright-protected music, on behalf of their many hundreds of thousands of members. They then distribute those royalties to members.

PPL represents record companies and performers for the use of recorded music, while PRS for Music represents songwriters, composers and music publishers for the use of musical compositions and lyrics (for both recorded music and live performances).

PPL and PRS for Music set up PPL PRS Ltd to offer a single joint music licence, on behalf of them both, for playing and performing music in public (see ‘What does playing music ‘in public’ mean?’).

Under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, permission is needed from the relevant copyright holders – those who create, record and publish music – in order to play or perform music in public.

Broadly speaking, this includes any presentation of music outside of a domestic setting. For example, it will include using music in the following ways as part of your business or organisation (for the benefit of customers and/or employees): playing recorded music via any device including the CDs, MP3, vinyl, tape and other records; showing TV broadcasts or other audio-visual content containing music; or putting on live performances of music.

There are a range of tariffs to cover the different uses of music across various venue types. However, the use of this music will usually require permission from the copyright holders and TheMusicLicence will give you that permission, covering the vast majority of commercially released music.

An entertainment licence is issued by your local authority. It gives you permission to provide entertainment on your premises. It may be subject to certain conditions such as time restrictions or number of people attending. You will still need a music licence for your bar or pub.

TheMusicLicence gives you permission to play or perform the vast majority of commercially available music.. Consequently, this means that you don’t have to spend your time and energy contacting potentially hundreds of thousands of rights-holders – those people who create music – to get permission to play or perform their music in your business.

Universities and student unions are expected to establish who is responsible for licensing your premises.

You will need to ensure that all of the music usage across your university and student union is declared to PPL PRS. This includes background music, live performances and events, societies such as theatrical, film, instrumental, dance, sport and many more.

This allows us to accurately license your university and student union and ensures the royalties are correctly distributed to PPL and PRS for Music members.

A “dramatico-musical work” refers to an opera, operetta, musical play, revue or pantomime for which the music has been specially written.

The term includes musicals specially written for the stage (such as Phantom of the Opera, Wicked or West Side Story) as well as musicals first conceived for film (such as Disney’s The Lion King or Mary Poppins) and broadcast or sound recording (such as The Who’s Tommy or Pink Floyd’s The Wall).

If you are playing or performing music in a comedy show, theatrical performance or pantomime, you will usually need TheMusicLicence.

There are a number of different tariffs to license the use of both live and recorded music in theatrical and variety performances.

For more information, visit:

pplprs.co.uk/business/theatres for more information or contact our Theatre and Variety Specialist at varietyapplications@pplprs.co.uk.

If you’re hosting film screenings, you will usually need TheMusicLicence. The cost of this will vary depending the type of premises and how often you host events.

Please contact us on cinemas@pplprs.co.uk for more information and for details of the appropriate tariffs and charges.