What is a PRO and why are they important?
Music publishing can often be a tidal wave of acronyms and royalty types – so we’re going to explain exactly what a PRO is and why independent musicians should be signed up to them.
A Performance Rights Organisation (usually referred to as a PRO) are the organisations who collect a music publishing royalty known as a ‘Performance Royalty’.
Whether your composition is a performance on TV, broadcast on the radio, a background playlist streamed at a restaurant, or a live performance – If you hear music when you’re out and about, it’s generating performance royalties for you to collect.
For example, you hear your composition being played on BBC Radio 1. Once it has been played, The BBC will then send the royalties that you have earned through your radio play to your local PRO (which is PRS if you are a UK based artist). An affiliated PRO will hold onto these royalties until they are collected.
Performance royalties are also generated when any of your compositions are streamed – so Spotify, Apple Music, YouTube Music etc are also sending your earned royalties to a PRO.
If your composition is streamed on Spotify in Germany, Spotify will send your royalties to GEMA (the German PRO), who will then send the royalties to your affiliated PRO.
You can also report any live performances to your PRO. Whether you perform in a music venue or a cafe – you will be paid royalties for each one of your compositions performed. However, you will need to report some information to your PRO about your gig to get paid! This usually includes what your setlist was, the address of the performance and the date of the performance.
“I’ve already signed up to a PRO, so why do I need RouteNote Publishing?”
If you are only signed up to a PRO, you will miss out on all of your earned performance royalties. With RouteNote Publishing, we are partnered with multiple organisations and societies worldwide. This means we collect more royalties than a standard PRO, and we do it quicker!
Plus you won’t need to go through the lengthy registration process when uploading your compositions to a PRO. We’ll focus on that and you can focus on making and performing your music!
RouteNote Publishing will look after you every step of the way and make sure you’re paid for every play.