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PRS for Music history
PRS for Music company history timeline
1914 - The Performing Right Society (PRS) forms to administer the non-dramatic performing and broadcasting rights of musical works across the UK, Eire and British Empire.
1923 - PRS issues its first licence to the BBC.
1925 - PRS establishes its first agency in South Africa.
1934 - PRS establishes the Members Benevolent Fund.
1937 - The BBC's licence from PRS includes television for the first time.
1939 - PRS opens a wartime emergency office in Church Hill House near Woking.
1944 - The Composers Guild forms to represent the interests of classical and filmscore composers.
1964 - Ray Davies, Mick Jagger and Keith Richards join PRS.
1966 - PRS installs its first computer.
1967 - David Bowie and Barry, Maurice and Robin Gibb of the Bee Gees join PRS.
1968 - Tim Rice and Andrew Lloyd Webber join PRS.
1969 - Eric Clapton joins PRS.
1970 - Elton John, Phil Collins and Yoko Ono join PRS.
1971 - PRS receives The Queen's Award for Industry for 'outstanding achievement in exporting goods or services'.
1973 - The British Phonographic Industry (BPI) forms to represent the interests of UK record companies.
1974 - PRS sponsors The Ivors for the first time.
1984 - PRS establishes its first regional office in Edinburgh.
1989 - The Irish Musical Rights Organisation (IMRO) forms as a subsidiary of PRS.
1992 - Margaret Thatcher visits MCPS offices.
1995 - IMRO becomes an independent collecting society.
1996 - PRS and MCPS begin discussing the possibility of a joint alliance.
PRS for Music was formed in 1997 following the MCPS-PRS Alliance.
1998 - MCPS and PRS complete their operational alliance agreement under one management team - The MCPS-PRS Alliance.
2000 - PRS launches The Performing Right Society Foundation for New Music, a charity to help emerging talent enter the music industry.
The Santiago Agreement was established in 2000 between five European collecting societies including the UK's PRS for Music and France's SACEM and Germany's GEMA. The agreement allows each collecting society to collect royalties on behalf of members of the other collecting society, e.g.
2002 - The MCPS-PRS Alliance hosts the 43rd CISAC World Congress in London.
2004 - MCPS and PRS become the first collecting societies to distribute iTunes royalties to their members.
2007 - The MCPS-PRS Alliance becomes one of the first collecting societies outside the US to license YouTube.
In 2007, PRS for Music had reclassified Welsh-language station BBC Radio Cymru as a local station, where previously it had been considered a national station.
In 2008, PRS for Music began a concerted drive to make commercial premises pay for annual "performance" licences.
Wiltshire Constabulary refused to pay PRS for Music for a £32,000 licence fee in April 2009.
2009 - PRS for Music signs 12 pan-European licensing deals with some of the largest online and mobile providers including Amazon, Apple iTunes, Napster, Nokia and Spotify.
In 2009, PRS and MCPS-PRS Alliance realigned their brands and became PRS for Music.
The PRS for Music Heritage Award scheme launched in 2009 with the first award going to Blur.
In October 2010, it was reported that Sussex Police, in a money-saving move, were not intending to renew their PRS for Music licence, meaning that police officers would no longer be able to listen to the radio in their squad cars or other work places.
2011 - PRS for Music provides input into the Hargreaves review of Intellectual Property and Growth.
PRS for Music financial results reveal a record year achieving an income of £665.7m, a 3.7% increase on 2012.
In 2012, a high per centage of Welsh-language musicians left PRS for Music to form a separate agency, Eos (Welsh for nightingale), after changes in the way PRS for Music calculates royalties led to a fifteen-fold decrease in payments.
From 1 January 2013, a PRS licence will not be required to play such music, and will not give any permission to do so.
2013 - PRS for Music launches electronic music initiative Amplify to help ensure dance music creators receive royalties when their work is played.
2013 - PRS for Music announces plans to move from Berners Street offices to Kings Cross and Streatham.
In July 2015, PRS for Music launched a pro-creator campaign called Streamfair.
PRS reports record figures for 2015 with continued revenue growth for members - PRS revenue up 7% to £537.4m on a constant currency basis 8.4% increase in distributions means £35.6m more money flowing through to members Growth across all revenue streams.
In February 2016, PRS for Music and PPL, the body who licenses the sound recording of a song, confirmed plans to create a new joint venture for public performance licensing.
PRS for Music celebrates digital success as it released its distribution data figures for 2016, a year that saw the company process over four trillion uses of music.
In 2018, PPL and PRS for Music formed a jointly owned subsidiary, PPL PRS Ltd, to collect all licence fees for public performances.
Robert Ashcroft to step down as Chief Executive of PRS for Music in 2019 - Chief Executive to step down on the tenth anniversary of his appointment, at the end of December 2019.
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PRS for Music may also be known as or be related to PRS FOR MUSIC LIMITED and PRS for Music.