I have delayed the issue of this month’s blog by one day to see if my PRO (Performing Rights Organisation), PRS for Music, had managed to get its act together with regard to registering songs. In December, they announced that they were working on upgrading their registration process with a view to accelerating the process and improving the accuracy of royalty payments. They promised that this would be completed by the end of January. It is now well into February and the process is still incomplete. While it is still possible to submit new works and amendments to current works, it is not possible to receive or view relevant codes which are necessary for releasing new tracks.

PRS for Music, which is the sole PRO for songwriters in the UK, consists of two bodies, PRS and MCPS. Both societies, which are for composers and lyricists, cost £100 to join. When you write a song, you are advised to register it on the PRS database. PRS then issues you with codes, such as a Tunecode and ISWC code, which are unique to that song. Your composition rights are then protected by PRS, while MCPS looks after your mechanical rights, e.g. for releasing on CD.

If you are a recording artist, you should register with PPL, which is free to join and looks after your performing rights. When you make a recording of a song, you should register that recording on PPL and link it to the appropriate composition on the PRS database. When you release that recording through your distributor, in my case Songtradr, you need to inform PPL and give them what is known as the ISRC code, which is unique to the recording and also identifies the composer. At the time of release of your track, you should inform PRS of the release and provide the ISRC code. You also receive a UPC code from your distributor which serves as a bar code.

Basically, if you want to get paid, you need all of these codes to release a track. While PRS is not issuing Tunecodes or ISWC codes, you cannot perform the linking process with PPL if the version of the song you are releasing needs registering or updating on the PRS database. I do not record other people’s music or the whole thing could become even more complex.

I am not aware how others are coping but, in my case, I wanted to update details on the database of the song “Jukebox in My Head” prior to its release as my next single. It now seems that, for my next release, I will have to use another track, “Through the Darkness”, which still needs a little work but has a relevant registration on the PRS database.

Who said that all of this was going to be easy.