PRS for Music Live Setlist Reporting: A Band Guide

If you write songs and play them live, every gig can earn you royalties — but only if you tell PRS for Music what you played. Many songwriters never report their setlists and leave money unclaimed every year.

This guide explains how live performance reporting works in the UK, who can benefit, and how to make it a two-minute job after each gig.

This is general information. PRS for Music's rules, deadlines and payment schedules are set out in your PRS online account and on the PRS website — always check the current guidance there.

#How live performance royalties work

When music is performed in public in the UK, the venue or promoter usually needs a licence. Many businesses get theirs through TheMusicLicence, which is issued by PPL PRS Ltd. Part of the money PRS collects for live music is distributed to the songwriters and publishers whose songs were performed.

To pay the right people, PRS needs to know which songs were played where. For many smaller gigs, that information only reaches PRS if a writer member reports the setlist.

#Who can report?

Live performances are reported by PRS writer members — songwriters and composers — through their online PRS account. Typically:

• Original bands — the band's songwriters report the setlists for gigs where their songs were performed.
• Solo singer-songwriters report their own gigs.
• Covers and function bands — royalties for cover songs go to the songwriters and publishers of those songs, not to the band performing them. A covers band that does not write its own material will not earn performance royalties from reporting. If you play a few of your own songs in a covers set, those songs can count.

If you are not yet a PRS member and you write songs that are being performed, it is worth looking at joining. Membership details and any joining fee are on the PRS website.

#Before you can report: register your works

PRS can only pay you for songs it knows about. Before reporting, make sure each original song is registered as a work with PRS, including:

• Song title (exactly as you will report it)
• All writers and their shares
• Publisher details, if any

Agree writer splits within the band early, and register them accurately. Disputes about splits are far easier to settle before money starts arriving.

#What you need for each gig

When you report a live performance, PRS will ask for details such as:

• Date of the performance
• Venue name and address
• Promoter or organiser, if you know it
• Setlist — the songs performed

Keep this information as you go. Trying to reconstruct a year of gigs from memory, old posters and photos is painful and error-prone.

#Reporting deadlines

PRS sets time limits for reporting live performances, and it publishes distribution schedules showing when royalties for each period are paid. These can change, so check your PRS account and the PRS website for the current deadlines. The safest habit is to report every gig shortly after it happens — or at least at the end of each month — so nothing falls outside a deadline.

#Report every gig, however small

It is easy to think a Tuesday night pub gig is not worth reporting. Report it anyway. Small gigs add up, and reporting consistently builds an accurate picture of where your music is performed.

Gigs worth reporting include:

• Headline and support slots
• Pub and bar gigs
• Festival performances
• Acoustic sessions, in-stores and open-mic slots where you performed your own songs
• Private events, if your own songs were performed

Check the PRS guidance for any types of performance that are handled differently, such as large concerts where promoters may submit setlists directly.

#Performing abroad

If you tour outside the UK, performances abroad can also generate royalties through PRS's relationships with overseas societies. Reporting requirements and timescales for international gigs can differ from UK ones, so check the guidance in your PRS account before you go.

#A simple monthly routine

1. After each gig, mark which songs were actually played. Setlists change on the night — report what you performed, not what you planned.
2. At the end of each month, log in to your PRS account and report that month's gigs.
3. Check that every song is registered before you report. Register new songs as soon as they enter the set.
4. Keep a copy of what you submitted, with the date you submitted it.
5. Check your statements when royalties are distributed and query anything that looks wrong.

#Tips for bands with several writers

• Decide who in the band is responsible for reporting. One person reporting for all the band's gigs avoids duplicates and gaps — but check PRS's guidance on how co-written works and multiple writer members should report.
• Share the reporting record with all the writers so everyone can see what has been submitted.
• Keep song titles consistent between your setlists and your PRS registrations. "Lights Out" and "Lights Out (Live Version)" can cause confusion.

#Common mistakes

• Not registering songs before reporting performances.
• Reporting planned setlists rather than what was actually played.
• Leaving it too long and missing a deadline.
• Forgetting support slots and small gigs.
• Inconsistent song titles that do not match registrations.

#Keep your setlists accurate on the night

The easiest way to report accurately is to capture changes as they happen. If you drop a song or add an encore, note it on the printed setlist or in your setlist app straight after the gig. Photograph the marked-up setlist before it goes in the bin.

#Make reporting easy

The hard part of PRS reporting is not the form — it is having accurate setlists for every gig in one place when you sit down to do it. If your setlists already live with your gigs, reporting is quick.

BandQuill's Pro plan stores writers, publishers and PRS work IDs against each song, gathers your performances from the setlists of gigs you have played, and gives you an export ready to use when you file your live return. You still submit to PRS yourself, but the information is already organised. However you do it, report every gig — it is your music, and those royalties are yours to claim.