UK Festivals warn against PRS rate rise, as Canada announces record live revenues in 2015

The Association of Independent Festivals (AIF) has warned against any move by collection society PRS for Music to increase the fees paid by their members for UK concerts and events. PRS Tariff LP currently charges 3% under tariff LP to all concerts and festivals. A review of this tariff was launched last year and AIF are warning against the ‘catastrophic effect’ that a rise to the live tariff would have on grassroots events. The AIF are calling instead for a separate festival tariff that will take into account the unique nature of staging music festivals and the multi arts format of many events, as well as their role as incubators of new talent. Such a model already exists in Ireland with the ‘multi-venue’ Tariff MS.

In Canada, live performance royalties grew to a record high in 2015 in what the Society of Composers, Authors and Music Publishers of Canada (SOCAN), called “another remarkable year” for the collection society. According to SOCAN’s 2015 financial report  ‘general and concert revenue’ increased 4.9% to C$39.6 million last year (up from $37.7m in 2014), demonstrating the “continuing popularity for live music in Canada”.