PRS for Music Reviews 

Just cancelled my music licence because the cost has more than doubled since prs and ppl joined up. I just can't see why / How they can justify charging again and again and again for the same royalties we all pay for tv licence we all pay when we buy or download music and then they want to charge struggling businesses again for a licence to play the same music they have already bought, paid tv licence, paid for the CD, paid for the down load and even to play the radio when the radio stations have already paid the royalties to broadcast music .. even the customers that come to my shop have paid for tv licence and have bought the music cd or movie to listen to. ..... I bet no one that comes to my shop does not already have a tv licence or has not already bought a CD or movie or has paid to download music. ......how corrupt is that....I only see greed and corruption and extortion....and very rich artists musicians song writers and music corporations........consumers are paying and paying again and again for what they have already paid for ......it's robbery....high time a consumers rights organisation / omnibusman looks into this and gets pay back and reimbursement for the ripped off consumer just like PPI from the banks

Time to raise our voices and be heard

Its simply wrong

I am so tired of these bullies. Their repeated phone calls are a nuisance and I have decided to cancel my license. There are plenty of companies that provide music that is copyright free and I am sure they must be more pleasant to deal with.

Horrific to deal with bunch of bullies
Horrific to deal with, always have another loop hole or reason for why you owe them money. all i done was inquiry but they wanted to charge me for a whole year plus surcharge fee. when asked to cancel the fee they pretended that they need to listen to the first recording its been a week and after 5 calls to them they still haven't listen to the recording and asking for two more weeks to listen to it plus i am getting e-mail every other week for payment plus surcharge they should be sued. i will go to ombudsman and report the issue next Monday.

This union appears to be trapped in the world of coal miners strikes and a 1970's British Leyland bullying mentality. They still actually BLACKLIST people thinking they have power?. An embarrassment to decent composers, they scrape from the underbelly of hard working musicians, so don't actually earn wages themselves and when they go home to their kids, they can say 'Hey, guess how daddy earned his living today". One Liverpool musician referred to them as "Bottom feeders".

I think it is fascinating that there is one good review - a song writer - and every other review would give no stars if it was possible. The cost has increased exponentially over the last few years. In a time of very low inflation, this is an extortionate charge. I have worked out that we are paying around £2 for each track we play. How can that be fair? I run a small private members club and we occasionally play a few tracks. This year this will cost more than our gas bill to heat and old draughty building, I kid you not! I actually amounts to 5% of our gross profit this year before payment of any other bills and wages. That and the fact that the admin is absolutely atrocious.

If I could leave no stars I would! This company need serious lessons in customer service and humanity!! I have had three years of hell from this company. It is too long to detail. Firstly chased for licence fees that were not even my own, secondly invoice raised incorrectly by them lead to having no valid licence apparently. This was then cancelled and re-issued yet they did not refund my original money to my new account. Despite multiple attempts to resolve this they were incapable of applying a credit and sending me a statement due to be paid. Indeed 12 months later, by which time I have no requirement for a licence they still had not resolved this. They are then claiming I owe them another year as I had not cancelled the licence! I notified all my suppliers etc I was closing my business three months prior. However they claim to not know. Regardless I do not need a licence and confirmed this the week before my licence ran out so we are splitting hairs over days! Eventually it became apparent I owed them the staggering amount of £6 from the previous year. I happily paid this as I do owe this amount. Then they have now allocated this to the wrong invoice, instead of last years one they have allocated it against the current year in dispute. They do not care, are unhelpful and unbelievable. I am contacting trading standards about this as I cannot believe such a company can operate in this way.

PRS for music is dead.. They are a bunch of music henchhogs who strived off Artist, Pubs and Clubs by charging them to do nothing.
I just cancelled my account with them, no more skylarking!
Years of writing a releasing music and nothing to show!
probably the biggest ponzi scheme ever, and i mean dat!

Contact: 0203-7414801
So much for being a London company huh!

If I could give zero stars I would , this is a scam company trying to recoup money when it’s not owed , arrogant staff and no ability to pay over a standard 12 month DD schedule.
Seriously shocking and will be the death of music in any venue.

Like others it is only a shame I have to give one star. I paid my licence in 2018. In 2019 I changed it to just radio and paid the lesser amount. They have pursued me now since May for the original full amount. I have sent evidence including an email acknowledging receipt of the lesser amount and also a screen shot of my bank account showing the payment. This has not been enough, they phoned every day leaving messages until I emailed them and said I would treat any further phone calls as harassment. They went quiet for 2 months and it has started again!! I have a letter from a debt collection agency now. Just goes to show how wrong it is to only have one company to deal with music licensing!

They have an auto-renewal system which automatically extends your contract for a year and you have to pay even if you won't be/haven't been using their service. No refund even a day after the renewal starts, you have to pay for an entire year upfront accidentally.

Well I have just be had by this company they have just sent me a bill dated November 2019 and it is for charges March 2019 until March 2020 so I have phoned them and asked why this bill has been sent and they explained that we are in a rolling contract which we were unaware of and the fact that we have not heard from them before march 2019 means that our contract has now rolled over and we have to pay the full amount the customer services was very agressive and direct all they want is the money they are not helpful in trying to help and if you want to cancel well you just have to remember when you set this lot up cause they want a months notice or you have had it for another year. so my advise is dont have anything to do with this company, organisations like the ombersman and watchdog really need to look into this company .
I would not have given any stars at all for this company and I feel sad that I have got to give them one star.

Like many others I received a phone call from PPL/PRS out of the blue and thought the call was a scam. I was questioned for 55 minutes and it was clear that the people on the other end had no clue as to what the small social enterprise for vulnerable adults was or understood how we use music. I stupidly gave away a lot of information that they misinterpreted and as a result I now have a bill in front of me for £1500.00. Fortunately, I didn't agree to anything over the phone, saying that I would not be agreeing to anything until I had researched this charge and its legitimacy and would take further advice before paying anything. Having looked at their website there are no tariffs that apply to us. We have a once a week 'music' session with people with learning difficulties in our own venue, a small room with up to 15 people. The closest tariff I can find is either a small premises tariff to play background music, although streamed music through Youtube is not mentioned but this costs £89.25 + VAT p.a. or an Exercise to Music tariff (which basically is what our session is because our learners like action songs!) which costs £1.61 + VAT per session! After having read the reviews on this site I wonder how difficult it is going to be for me to get them to change the invoice amount? I am happy to pay for what we use but this company is exploiting people and they should be ashamed of themselves. After the phone call from them I sat at my desk and cried - we don't have that kind of money. THEN I kicked myself up the rear and started to talk to other people, look at reviews, research the legalities. The government should give the contract for the music licence to another organisation! I don't have time for this but I will be fighting them all the way!

Absolute disgrace, be very careful when dealing with these people.
Received a call out of the blue. I explained that I run a small business from my home and do not have any music playing in my study but as its my home I can play what i want. Despite this they wanted me to complete a series of questions. I told the guy i was busy and politely finished the call. The guy called back and was stupid enough to leave a message on our cloud system. The message went along the lines of requiring me to call back to complete the questions or the issue would be escalated and legal action was mentioned.
I did call them back and advised them i had played the tape to my solicitor and if they contacted me again we would commence legal action.
Seemed to do the trick but both the guys i spoke to were full of BS and were very aggressive . Be careful when dealing with them

Absolutely disgusting. Paid for a license, played music for 4 months, had to close business down and they wont give me a partial refund. So I'm paying a full year for premises I no longer occupy! Extremely unfair. I'd like to know what the recording artists think if this! Very, very angry.

Absolute rip off company, sent me a bill for £78 for making a telephone enquires! Will be taking this all the way to the Ombudsman service.

As A composer, I had a piece of music broadcast on BBC 1 Primetime by the no 1 Gospel choir in the world ( you know who they are ) to 17 million viewers in the Uk and 180 million viewers worldwide. I was delighted that after being a member of PRS for over 40 years my success had arrived at last. So I'm waiting to see how much I should receive in royalties...well guess what... Firstly they attributed the composition to 2 composers who died in the 15th Centuary ... then they paid me and my co-writer £90 each and a further £12. How can they charge premises over a £1000 to play music and justify the little they pay music creators? I earn more playing to a pub with only 50 people in it. I'm upset as you can imagine wouldn't you be?

what a stupid and ridiculous amount of money to pay that God knows where it goes, what makes musicians so special then, that they get paid when we buy the CD and then everytime we play the cd for each song? how do I know my money goes to the "musicians that I listen too".

Sold company and was initially told if no change(i.e. no change in trading name/address) other than ownership license applied. Now told otherwise by angry new owner. Tried to cancel and get a refund but told when contract was signed it was for 12months so no refund. How can that be!! Even DVLA refund unused road tax if you sell your car. I'm happy to pay for playing music but when that ceased you shouldn't be forced to pay for something you no longer require. Was told you had a choice to sign or not. I cannot see that as a choice. You cannot not sign unless you don't want to play music. Where is the choice??

They don't send a letter, then send a overdue invoice, and have already sold it onto the baliffs! They did similar last year too!
1 star is too good but cant do less

Absolutely appalling experience with this company! Same as everyone else - a member of our staff was tricked into saying that she listened to music and was then terrified and bullied into accepting a nearly £1000 invoice - no contact with owners, no information about the the of business and how we operated just bullying into paying a backdated invoice. I contacted their customer service and like all these organisations was landed with someone who quoted from a script! I have contacted Watchdog and will be writing to my MP suggest everyone else does the same. Would give no stars if possible. Just dreadful experience!!