How to register your music with PRS for Music — a step-by-step guide

PRS for Music is the UK's primary collecting society for songwriters, composers, and publishers. When your music is publicly performed, broadcast on radio or television, played in a venue, or streamed, PRS collects performance royalties on your behalf and distributes them quarterly.

Joining PRS is not optional for any working songwriter who wants to be paid when their music is used. It is the foundation of royalty collection in the UK, and the registration of every composition you release is what ensures those royalties reach you rather than remaining unclaimed.

This guide covers the full process: joining PRS, registering your works, adding MCPS, and registering with PPL as a performer.

PRS, MCPS and PPL — which do you need?

Three UK organisations collect different royalties for different rights:

PRS for Music (PRS): collects performance royalties for songwriters and publishers when compositions are broadcast, streamed, or publicly performed. If you write songs, you need PRS.

MCPS (Mechanical-Copyright Protection Society): collects mechanical royalties for songwriters and publishers when compositions are reproduced — on physical product (vinyl, CD), digital downloads, and in some streaming contexts. MCPS is administered by PRS for Music and can be added when you join PRS.

PPL (Phonographic Performance Limited): collects neighbouring rights royalties for recording artists and record producers when sound recordings are broadcast on radio or television. If you perform on recordings, you need PPL. PPL is a completely separate organisation from PRS with its own registration process.

The decision tree:

• You write songs: join PRS. Add MCPS if your music is or will be released on physical formats or distributed digitally.
• You perform on recordings: join PPL separately.
• You do both: join PRS (+ MCPS) and PPL — they are separate memberships and separate registrations.

Step 1 — Join PRS for Music

Go to prsformusic.com/join and select writer membership.

What you need:

• Basic personal information (name, address, date of birth)
• Proof of identity (passport, driving licence, or birth certificate)
• Payment for the one-off joining fee

Joining fees:

• Standard writer membership: £100 one-off, lifetime
• Under-25 writer membership: £30 one-off (significantly discounted)
• MCPS membership: additional £100 one-off if joining both simultaneously

In 2025, PRS paid out £1.07 billion in royalties to over 190,000 members. Nearly 7,000 members received their first-ever royalty payment in 2025 — meaning PRS is actively generating income for new members at scale.

After your application is approved, you receive a confirmation email and a unique CAE/IPI number — your membership identifier used in all royalty attribution globally. Your PRS membership is effective from 1 January of the year you apply if you apply between January and June; if you apply between July and December, membership begins 1 January of the following year.

You will also be able to vote in PRS governance decisions — PRS is owned and governed by its members.

Step 2 — Register your works

Once your membership is confirmed, log into the PRS member portal and register each composition using the "Register a work" function.

For each work, you provide:

• Work title (use the exact title as you have submitted to your distributor — mismatches create attribution problems)
• Alternative titles if applicable
• Duration
• All contributing writers with their PRS membership numbers and their share percentages
• ISWC if already assigned (PRS will assign one if not)

The shares section is the most important to get right. In PRS work registration, each work has a performing share and a mechanical share. Both must total exactly 100% across all writers. If you are the sole writer, your shares are 100%/100%. For co-written works, the shares reflect the agreed split between the writers.

Common mistakes to avoid:

Registering under the wrong title: the title registered with PRS must match what appears on the cue sheet submitted by any broadcaster or streaming platform. A mismatch means royalties are not attributed.

Incorrect writer splits: if a co-writer's share is entered incorrectly, they may receive royalties you are owed and vice versa. The TYFRA Vault split proposal system creates the agreed split record that you transcribe accurately into PRS.

Forgetting to register a work: royalties for an unregistered work flow into a general pool distributed to registered members rather than to the specific rights holder. Register every composition before or immediately on release.

Not adding your publisher: if you have a publishing deal, your publisher's IPI number is added at the work registration stage. This links the publisher's share to their membership correctly.

Step 3 — Register live performances

If you perform your own compositions live, PRS's Gigs and Concerts system allows you to register set lists and claim performance royalties from those shows. Larger venues have PRS licences that generate royalties per performance. Smaller venues may not, but logging your performances creates a record.

Register your live performances through the PRS member portal using the Live Performance tool. Add the venue, date, and set list. PRS cross-references against its database of licensed venues and processes royalties accordingly.

Step 4 — Join MCPS

If your music is released on physical formats (vinyl, CD) or through digital distribution, MCPS membership enables you to collect mechanical royalties.

MCPS membership costs an additional £100 one-off and can be added through the PRS for Music website as part of your initial application or later. As a PRS member, you access MCPS through the same PRS for Music platform.

When to join MCPS:

• Your music is being pressed on vinyl or CD by a manufacturer
• Your music is distributed digitally (Spotify, Apple Music, etc.)
• Your music is being reproduced for any commercial purpose

If you have a publisher who is already an MCPS member, they will collect mechanical royalties on your behalf under your deal terms — check your publishing agreement to understand whether you need to join MCPS separately.

Step 5 — Register with PPL

PPL is a completely separate registration from PRS. If you perform on recordings — as a vocalist, musician, or producer — you need a PPL membership to collect neighbouring rights royalties when those recordings are broadcast on radio or television.

Join PPL at ppluk.com. The registration process is separate from PRS. Once a PPL member, register each recording you performed on with your role (featured artist, non-featured performer, producer).

PPL distributes neighbouring rights royalties separately from PRS, on a different schedule. Having both registrations complete ensures you collect both the composition royalties (PRS) and the recording royalties (PPL) from every broadcast use of your music.

After joining — how royalties flow

PRS distributes royalties quarterly:

• February: for Q4 of the previous year
• May: for Q1
• August: for Q2
• November: for Q3

The minimum payout threshold is £30 for UK members and £60 for international royalties. Royalties below these thresholds accumulate until the threshold is reached.

PRS deducts approximately 10–15% of collected royalties as an administration fee before distributing to members. This is the cost of the PRS infrastructure — licensing, collection, distribution, and international reciprocal agreements.

International royalties: through its agreements with collecting societies around the world and the ICE (International Copyright Enterprise) hub, PRS collects royalties from international uses of your compositions and distributes them to you directly. This is one of the key reasons PRS membership is valuable — international collection that would otherwise require separate registrations in dozens of countries.

TYFRA and PRO registration

TYFRA Vault stores the ISRC, ISWC, songwriter credits with IPI numbers, and agreed publishing splits for every composition — the complete set of information you need for PRS work registration. The split documentation accepted by all co-writers in Vault is the source of truth for the writer shares you enter when registering each work with PRS.

TYFRA Finance tracks incoming PRS payments alongside all other royalty streams — quarterly performance royalties, MCPS distributions, PPL neighbouring rights payments, and sync fees in a single income dashboard.