The new music licensing tariffs for sports clubs, drawn up by collecting societies PRS and PPL under new legislation which ended the exemption for clubs, are still awaiting official clearance.
Following consultation with the Sport and Recreation Alliance, PRS and PPL submitted tariffs to the Copyright Tribunal for collecting money from clubs which play music.
However, the Tribunal has still not approved the tariffs which means that PRS and PPL cannot yet license sports clubs under the new proposed charging structure.
Whilst the situation creates uncertainty for sports clubs and for governing bodies, it does mean that many clubs continue to fall outside of the collection process and may not need to pay for a licence until later this year when the tariff is signed off.
Those clubs which already pay for a licence through PRS are advised to contact PRS to discover whether they would be better off waiting to be licensed under the new tariff.
Occassionally, clubs can find themselves in the wrong tariff for music licensing charges. To double check, here is the propriety rate guidance and the non-profit rate guidance.
For further inquiries on music licensing contact James Stibbs.
