How to Register Your Songs with PRS for Music

What is PRS for Music?

PRS for Music is the UK's primary performing rights organisation. It is the result of a merger between PRS (Performing Right Society) and MCPS (Mechanical-Copyright Protection Society), and it handles two distinct types of royalty: performance royalties, which are generated when a song is performed live, broadcast on radio or television, or streamed on a platform; and mechanical royalties, which are generated when a song is reproduced — pressed to vinyl, encoded in a digital file, or streamed on-demand. PRS manages collection across both streams and distributes quarterly to its members. UK reciprocal agreements with overseas PROs mean PRS also collects on your behalf from most international territories, though some countries require direct registration for reliable collection.

Who needs to register with PRS?

PRS membership is for songwriters, composers, and music publishers — the people who create and own the underlying composition. If you wrote the words or the music, you are a songwriter and PRS is for you. If you recorded someone else's composition, PRS membership is not how you collect — that is handled by PPL (for recordings) and SoundExchange (for US digital performance). Many independent artists are both: they write their own material and record it themselves, which means they should be members of both PRS (for the composition) and PPL (for the recording). Joining both is essential if you want to collect across all available royalty streams.

Step 1: Create a PRS membership account

To join PRS, visit prsformusic.com and apply for writer membership. The process is online. You will need to provide your full legal name, contact details, and details of at least one published work. There is a one-time joining fee (currently £10 for writer membership). PRS will verify your application and send confirmation by email. Once approved, you gain access to the PRS member portal where you can register your works, review your royalty statements, and update your payment details. There is no annual fee for standard writer membership.

Step 2: Register your works

Membership alone does not trigger royalty payments. You must register each work individually through the PRS Works Registration portal. For each work, you will need:

• The full title of the song, including any alternative titles or known variants
• The ISWC (International Standard Musical Work Code) if you have one — PRS can generate this for you if not
• The names and PRS member IDs of all co-writers, along with the agreed ownership split (must total 100%)
• The publisher name and publisher split, if applicable — if you are self-publishing, this is your own publishing entity
• Whether the work is original or an arrangement/translation of a pre-existing work
• Key release details: the ISRC of the primary recording, and the release date

How PRS pays out

PRS distributes royalties quarterly — typically in April, July, October, and January, covering earnings from the prior period. The distribution process involves CatCo, the joint matching system used by PRS and PPL to reconcile broadcast logs against registered works. When a track is played on UK radio or television, the broadcaster submits a programme log. CatCo matches that log against registered recordings (via ISRC) and compositions (via ISWC). If both match, royalties flow. If either side is missing a registration, the royalty does not distribute. This is why the ISRC-to-ISWC linkage matters: the two codes are the bridge between what was played and who owns it.

Common registration mistakes

The most costly mistake is registering the work but omitting co-writer information, or entering a split that does not match what was agreed. PRS will hold the royalty in suspense until splits are confirmed by all parties. The second most common error is failing to link the ISRC of the recording to the ISWC of the composition during work registration — without this link, broadcast logs that reference the recording cannot be matched to the composition, and performance royalties for that broadcast are lost. Finally, many artists register at launch but never update their works register when they release remasters, remixes, or alternate recordings. Each new recording should be linked to the composition via a new ISRC.

If you have songs on streaming platforms or in broadcast rotation and have not registered them with PRS, the royalties being generated right now have nowhere to go. Code Group Music's Publishing Administration service handles PRS registration on your behalf — ensuring works are correctly registered, co-writer splits are documented, and ISRC-to-ISWC linkages are in place. Start with a free Catalog Assessment at codegroupmusic.co.uk/#catalog-assessment.