Welcome to Composers for a Fair Deal

This website has been set up in protest at the PRS Board's decision to slash the per-minute royalty payout for most television broadcasts - so as to pay for a vastly increased (by 100%!) royalty payment for any music used during a so-called 'primetime' slot of 6pm until midnight.

We feel these proposals are insane, badly thought through and will be disastrous to the vast majority of composers and publishers whose work is broadcast on British television - just to make a very few top flight composers (the ones who get most of the primetime) a lot richer than they already are.

Whatever your area of music

  • whether you are part of rock band trying to make a success of it;
  • whether you are an already established band or singer/songwriter, or trying to make a go of writing music for TV;
  • or are making quite a reasonable income from writing TV music, or you earn as a writer from music libraries;
  • or you are anything less than a major music publisher.

your income from TV plays is likely to be slashed - you'll suffer the first cut in your July 2007 PRS distribution. If you are currently still trying to make a full-time living in music, this "primetime" scheme will make life a whole lot more difficult and painful for you.

As PRS members it is only right that our voice is heard. PRS wrongly maintain there was a full consultation on this issue. There wasn't. PRS have provided no forum for free and fair debate so it is important that you make your feelings known here and now.

If you are a PRS member, please visit our petition page and add your voice and opinions to the voices of your fellow members and together we can make the board protect and defend the value of our music - for everyone - instead of punishing the vast majority of writers by forcing them to give a huge chunk of their money to the tiny handful of those (mainly television music writers) already at the top of the business.

Thank you