[Fmpro] PRS -

[andrew feazelle]

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            Appendix 57



            Memorandum submitted by Mr Anthony Gilbert 


            I have been asked by the Classical Music Alliance, of whom I am a member, to offer evidence of the deleterious effect of recent PRS rulings on my earnings as a composer. 

            1. Personal background. I have been active in the music profession as a "classical" composer since late 1961. Virtually all my music is published, and has been since 1965, initially by Schotts and since 1995 by the University of York Music Press. Since 1964 I have been an Associate Member of the Performing Right Society, since 1963 a Member of the Composers' Guild of Great Britain and since its formation a member of the Association of Professional Composers. New that these bodies have amalgamated, my membership is of the British Academy of Composers & Songwriters. 

            2. Process of subtle change. I first became aware of a subtle change in the attitude within the Performing Right Society (hereafter referred to as PRS) a decade or more ago, when one of its members instituted what appeared at the time to be a rogue campaign to abolish what was then called the "Serious Music Weighting", determined by contractual agreement at a very early stage in the history of the PRS. He was unsuccessful, but thereafter, in the internal deliberations of the PRS, the term "weighting" was quietly dropped and replaced by "subsidy". This inevitably changed the perceptions of many of the membership of what this weighting actually was, and over time, a growing number of members working in the vastly more wealthy fields of popular culture began to resent its existence. 

            3. Effect on income of reduction in royalty-significant venues. My own PRS income was first affected by a PRS policy decision when it was decided, for reasons of internal efficiency, to draw up a shortened list of some 500 "significant venues" against which performance royalties could be accredited. A proportion of my music has always been performed outside this framework, at music clubs, university colleges and small festivals. This meant that for every notional £100 my work had been earning in PRS dues, I was now only collecting about £80. 

            4. Secondary effects. The first impact of this was fairly immediate: Schotts, who then published my work and were in receipt of an equivalent PRS amount as part of my contractual agreement with them, first reduced, then terminated my annual retaining fee, a sum approximately equal to my own direct PRS earnings, then finally my publishing contract. The University of York Music Press, which I then joined, will suffer from these and future reductions in royalties even more, since their economic base is far less secure. 

            5. Future effects. Leaving aside questions of inflation, the effect of this present ruling will now ultimately reduce this notional £80 in PRS dues to something under £40: an overall reduction over 11 years of over 60 per cent. There are suggestions that tariffs are to be increased to compensate; in fact, these tariffs were long overdue for increase anyway. 

            6. Possible effect of sampling. A further proposal suggests that concert royalties will at some time in the future be allocated on a sampling basis, and not on actual statistics. This will turn the whole process of allocation of legal entitlements into a lottery. 

            7. The voting power of lower earners within the PRS is likely to be reduced even further if the proposed new earnings-based vote-weightings come into effect, whereby top earners have 500 votes each, to every one for those earning between £250 and £2,000 in royalties. As will be seen from all the above, the power of the PRS drastically to affect the livelihood of its members is not to be underestimated. Far from being an economic élite, we are now a threatened minority. 

            8. Broader economic effects. These changes are already undermining the economic base of music publishers also, as well as the partnership between composers and publishers, thereby striking at the mainstay of the profession of classical contemporary composition. 

            9. Role of the Regional Arts Boards. All this must be viewed against a background of drastically-reduced support from the regional arts boards for the commissioning and performance of contemporary classical music. I attach a schedule of performances funded by North West Arts Board during 1999*. Only one out of 67 promotions contains music which could arguably be called "contemporary classical". For my own professional performances in this country I am now almost entirely reliant upon the BBC, and a handful of dedicated ensembles who largely perform in venues no longer recognised by the PRS. 

            10. Effect on the generation now in training. In my role as teacher and trainer of young professionals, I view all the above with the greatest concern. It is no exaggeration to say that the majority of this young talent, having spent years and a considerable amount of money in thorough preparation for a profession in which Britain has been shown to excel, runs grave risk of discovering that the economic base of that profession has been eroded to the point of unviability. For composition in this genre is not only a vocation but also a highly-skilled labour- and time-intensive occupation. Those engaging in it fully are thereby precluded from earning much in other directions, unless they are very privileged. 

            May 1999

           
     


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This poor fella seems to be affected - but long before any time of day weightings - May 1999
Benjamin Britton's estate was griping also about lower royalties for "Young Person's Guide to 
the Orchestra" in the larger London halls.  

A Fez