About Performing Right Society [trading as PRS for Music] for FE Colleges

Who are PRS for Music?

The PRS for Music is the UK association of composers, songwriters and music publishers, created in 1914. PRS for Music is a non-profit making organisation, that administers the performance rights in their members’ music, in relation to the provisions of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988.

Who are CEFM?

In April 2002 PRS for Music appointed the Centre for Education & Finance Management Ltd (formerly the Centre for Education Management) to act as agent for the collection of royalties from the Further Education sector.

CEFM provide support and consultancy services to schools and have been working with PRS for Music since 1995. Initially in the collection of royalties from the Grant Maintained schools sector, and then in 1999 expanding the relationship to collect annual royalties from all state and independent schools in the UK.

Why do we need a licence?

The performance right in a piece of music is the right of the creator to control where and when their work is used. Every time a piece of music is performed in public, the creator is entitled by law to charge a fee for that use. The performance right as granted by the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, is a transferable commodity that can be assigned by the creator of a work to an agent who will act on their behalf.

It would be impractical for all concerned if every time you wanted to perform a piece of music you first had to track down the creator to negotiate a fee and so, for this reason, creators of music assign their performance right to PRS for Music. PRS for Music then issue licences to premises where music created by their members is heard in public, such as pubs, clubs, restaurants, shops, schools, municipal buildings and so on.

Based on statistical surveys and information received from both users of music and PRS for Music‘s members, the fees collected by PRS for Music are distributed to members on an annual basis. In many cases, this is the creators’ only source of income and allows them to continue creating music. Unlicensed music use denies the creator their income and may cause some to cease creating music altogether.