How to get paid when you’ve been played on the radio
If you’ve received National Radio play, and have written, performed and / or released the song, there are multiple ways in which you get paid.
You can find out more about how we can help you register your music, or do it for you at one of our advice drop-ins - find out more here.
When your song is played on radio -
If you have written the song - you are paid money through PRS and MCPS
If you have performed on the song - you are paid money through PPL
If you have released the song - you are paid money through PPL also.
PRS collects money when songs you have written are performed in public - and also collects money when your songs are performed live (including by yourself), and when they’re streamed (this is a small % in addition to what you collect through distributors. PRS is £100 to join, per writer involved in the song.
MCPS collects money when songs you have written are ‘duplicated’ - and now collects an increasing amount of money from BBC Sounds app. It also collects a similar small % from streaming and downloads, in addition to what you collect through distributors and what PRS pay out. MCPS is £100 to join, per writer involved in the song.
PPL collects money when recordings are broadcast / played in public. 50% of the money it collects goes to the performers, and 50% goes to the ‘record label’ - this is who uploads the music, so this could be you as well! It is free to join PPL but you need to register separately as a performer and a label / master rights holder.
Launchpad runs a service where we can register all your music for you - artist have found this helpful when there are multiple songwriters and they’re just getting started, or where they just want someone to take a job off them!.
If you want to take to us about how to register yourself, or how we can register for you - drop us a message or book on to one of our drop-in Zoom sessions - you can do both here.
How much money could this be?
If you have written, performed and released the track yourself, there could be £40 for each play on BBC 1Xtra, £100 on BBC 6 Music and £200 for a play on BBC Radio 1.