Guides

Music publishing in United Kingdom

How music publishing actually works in the United Kingdom: who claims which rights, what the national copyright system does, and what it takes for a publisher to set up and collect.

Who claims which rights

Performance and mechanical: PRS for Music (MCPS handles the mechanical side). Sync: direct.

Copyright registration in the United Kingdom

No national registration system — protection is automatic under Berne. Evidence of authorship is contractual and archival, not registral.

Setting up to claim publishing rights

PRS publisher membership is open to foreign companies: the bar is a catalog of at least 15 works by two or more writers, with one-time fees of £400 for PRS and £400 for MCPS. Registrations land in the ICE database. Smaller catalogs often route through a UK administrator or sub-publisher instead until membership pays for itself.

The societies

PRS for Music · ICE — each linked page covers the society’s history and how registrations reach it.

Rules, fees, and society requirements change, and none of this is legal advice — confirm current requirements with the society or local counsel before committing. Registrations bound for the United Kingdom can be checked free on the validator · more: setting up country by country · which societies accept CWR.

Check a CWR file free — errors and warnings tied to the exact line, nothing stored: cwrcheck.com.