PRS for Music launches revamped Major Live Concert Service

29 May 2019 - Press release

• £21m collected across 60 countries on behalf of nearly 200 PRS for Music members via MLCS™, including No.1 highest-selling world tour of the year by Ed Sheeran and tours by Bruno Mars, Roger Waters, U2, The Rolling Stones

• Randy Grimmett, CEO, Global Music Rights, Roope Pajasmaa, CEO, Mind Your Rights and artist manager Tony Smith (Phil Collins, Mike Rutherford and Tony Banks), praise development 

PRS for Music announced today it will be bringing its proprietary Major Live Concert Service to the market under the new brand MLCS™ by PRS.

MLCS™ builds on the society’s long-standing Major Live Concert Service, a high-end proposition for arena and stadium level acts designed to address their specific royalty administration requirements.

Now, with a slew of upgrades including new technological solutions and streamlined processes, the service will also feature fixed payment terms and further reduced administration fees in response to feedback from a survey of key artist representatives.

As part of the relaunch, PRS for Music has been working to curtail and harmonise administration rates across territories and has successfully implemented special terms for the MLCS™ program, including local rates as low as 8.5 percent in some key territories.

PRS for Music is also working on eradicating the controversial practice of ‘promoter kickbacks’ still occurring in some territories, and provides full transparency to artists on all aspects of the royalty collection and distribution process as part of the MLCS™ program.

Developed for and with several of the world’s biggest touring artists in direct response to their needs, MLCS™ puts control back into the hands of the music creator. Arming teams with premium business terms and tools unique in the industry, the MLCS™ program demystifies tax, offers a pre-tour royalty calculation service, clear and upfront details of headliner and support splits in each country allowing for accurate forecasts of royalty streams throughout the tour, and provides a post-tour royalty reconciliation feature.

The MLCS™ program also benefits from PRS for Music’s drive towards digital offerings. For example, as part of the MLCS™ program, PRS for Music will be piloting the Concertify Solution developed by Finnish company Mind Your Rights. Concertify provides a platform for all parties within the value chain to access real-time visibility of the datasets necessary for processing royalty flows, such as setlists, venue information, payment statuses and box office receipt.

In 2018, over £21m was collected across 60 countries on behalf of nearly 200PRS for Music members, via MLCS™. Five of the top ten global tours in 2018 utilised MLCS™ and contributed to these figures. These included the No.1 highest-selling world tour of the year by Ed Sheeran and tours by Bruno Mars, Roger Waters, U2, The Rolling Stones.

“We acknowledge representing the world’s top talent comes with expectations, and we need to be in a position to offer a service that meets those requirements to be given the privilege of continuing to collect their concert royalties. We’ve taken on board feedback from several of our key member representatives and are committed to making MLCS™ a proposition that further solidifies PRS as the go-to provider of major concert tour copyright management”, states Sami Valkonen, Director of International, PRS for Music.

“We are already working with the society network to implement these critical changes that are necessary to not only to keep MLCS™ competitive in the new marketplace, but, frankly, to keep the entire society network relevant in this area”, continues Valkonen.

Roope Pajasmaa, CEO, Mind Your Rights, praises the development: “We are excited to be working with PRS for Music alongside other societies on taking concert copyright management to a new level.  Concertify is providing rightsholders with an unparalleled experience and offering societies new digital toolsets, and contributing to PRS´s MLCS program.

Artist representatives who have collaborated with PRS for Music on the MLCS™ launch also welcome the cutting-edge program.

“We have worked with PRS for Music for several years on the tours of our artists and appreciate the expertise they have in collecting and distributing major live concert royalties. We look forward to the new MLCS proposition being a substantial further improvement to the benefit our clients”, said Randy Grimmett, CEO, Global Music Rights.

Tony Smith, Manager (Phil Collins, Mike Rutherford and Tony Banks), said: “I applaud PRS for realising the major concert royalty collection system must be made more efficient if societies intend to continue being involved. The enhancements that PRS are proposing to make to its program are an important step in the right direction, and I look forward to seeing the concrete results.”