The Players

Three societies.
Each collects a
different slice.

PPL, PRS and MCPS sound interchangeable, and most artists mix them up. Each collects a different royalty from a different part of your music — and the only way to be paid all of it is to be known to all of them.

The key idea

Every released track is really two things.

When you put out a song, there are two separate pieces of property inside it, and the law treats them as two different copyrights.

The first is the compositionThe song itself — the melody, chords and lyrics. It exists separately from any particular recording of it. A cover version is a new recording of the same composition. — the song you wrote, in the abstract. The second is the recordingThe specific recorded version you made — also called the "master". It's a separate copyright from the song written into it., or master — the version you actually released. Same track, two copyrights, owned and paid out separately.

That split is why there's more than one society. Some collect for the song; one collects for the recording. Write and record your own music and you own both — so money is owed from both, and registering with only one body leaves the other half unclaimed.

Who collects what

One track, split two ways.

Your released track → two copyrights

Copyright 1

The song

The composition — what you wrote.

PRS MCPS
PRS — pays when the song is performed, broadcast, streamed or played in public.
MCPS — pays when the song is reproduced: pressed to disc, downloaded, or the mechanical share of a stream.
Paid to: songwriters & publishers.

Copyright 2

The recording

The master — the version you released.

PPL your distributor
PPL — pays when the recording is broadcast on radio/TV, played in public, or used on online radio.
Distributor — on-demand streaming money for the recording reaches you here, not through a society.
Paid to: performers & the recording's owner.

One distinction is easy to miss: PPL handles the broadcast and public-play money for your recording, while the on-demand streaming money for the recording comes through whoever distributes you (DistroKid, TuneCore and so on).

Meet the three

What each one actually does.

PRS and MCPS sit under the same roof (“PRS for Music”) but are separate memberships. PPL is a different organisation entirely. Here's each in a sentence.

PRS

Performing Right Society

Collects performance royaltiesMoney earned when a song is played to the public — broadcast on radio or TV, streamed, performed live, or played in a venue or shop. on the song. Triggered whenever your composition is broadcast, streamed, performed live, or played in public. Pays songwriters, composers and publishers.

MCPS

Mechanical-Copyright Protection Society

Collects mechanical royaltiesMoney earned when a song is reproduced or copied — pressed to CD/vinyl, downloaded, or the "mechanical" portion of a stream. on the song — the right to reproduce it. Triggered by physical copies, downloads, and the mechanical share of streams. Also pays songwriters, composers and publishers.

PPL

Phonographic Performance Ltd

Collects on the recording — these are neighbouring rightsThe rights of performers and the recording's owner, as distinct from the songwriter's rights. PPL collects these when a recording is broadcast or played in public.. Triggered when your recording is broadcast or played in public. Pays the performers on it and whoever owns the master.

PPL has two memberships: one as a performer (everyone who played on the track, including session musicians) and one as the recording rights-holder (the owner of the master). A self-releasing artist is usually both, and needs both to collect the full amount.

Follow one song

The same play, paid three different ways.

Say you wrote and recorded a single — we'll call it “Static Light” — and released it yourself. Here's what each kind of play triggers.

“Static Light” · one self-released single

Someone streams it on Spotify

Pays PRS (your writer's share) and MCPS (the mechanical share) for the song — and the recording's streaming money comes through your distributor.

It gets played on BBC Radio 1

Pays PRS for the song and PPL for the recording — and the PPL money splits again between you as the performer and you as the recording's owner.

It plays over the speakers in a clothes shop

Pays PRS for the song and PPL for the recording, both funded by the public-performance licence that shop is required to hold.

One radio play can pay you twice — once as a writer, once for the recording — but only if you're registered with both PRS and PPL. Register with only one and you collect half of what's owed.

So which apply to you?

It comes down to what you did on the track.

  • You wrote it — register with PRS (and MCPS for the mechanical side). This is your songwriter income.
  • You performed on it or own the recording — register with PPL, as a performer and, if you're self-releasing, as the recording rights-holder too.
  • You wrote and recorded it yourself — the usual case for an independent artist — all three apply. You're the writer, the performer and the owner, so all of it is owed to you.
Where to go next

Now you know who — here's how.

Register your catalogue

A plain-English walkthrough of signing up to each body and registering your own work — field by field, no jargon left unexplained.

See the walkthrough →

Myths & mistakes

“I'm on Spotify, so I'm covered.” “My distributor handles it.” Common beliefs that cost artists the money covered here.

See what trips people up →

Coming soon

Doing this for every track is the tedious part.

REGISTAR is a tool we're building to make registering with all three bodies simple. Join the list and we'll let you know the moment it's ready — no spam, just one email.

One email when it's ready. Nothing else. How we handle your data.

You're on the list. We'll be in touch the moment REGISTAR opens.