PRS revenue collected from live music reaches over £100 million for first time

PRS for Music (PRS) has revealed that for the first time in the collective’s more than 110-year history, revenue collected from live music generated over £100 million (£101.4 million) in 2025. This is a 13.2% (£11.9 million) increase on 2024.

PRS paid royalties on a total of 7.8 million unique works in 2025. This is an increase on 41% (2.3 million) since 2020, reflecting a continued expansion in the number of works and performances generating value for creators across live, streaming and international markets.

Royalty collections increased by 7.7% (£88.2 million) on the previous year, reaching £1.24 billion. Furthermore, the company paid out £1.07 billion to shareholders in 2025, a 4.9% increase (£49.9 million) on 2024. Out of those paid, 4,541 songwriters and composers were receiving payment for the first time, receiving £1.96 million in royalties.

Overall revenues from public performance, including live music or music played in public, represented a 9.1% (£26.1 million) year-on-year increase, reaching £313.4 million.

Streaming, however, continues to dominate music access, contributing £351.4 million of royalties collected, up 11.8% (£37.1 million) on 2024. Revenue from on-demand video also saw a year-on-year increase of 20.1% (£12.9 million), reaching £77.2 million. Overall, PRS collected £447.2 million of online royalties, up by 9.6% (£39.3 million) on 2024.

In 2025, Europe continued to be the most important market for PRS members’ music, with revenue reaching £200.6 million, a 7.9% (£9 million) year-on-year increase. International royalty income totalled £367.3 million, up by 4.2% (£14.8 million) on 2024. From this, 28% was collected for music used in North America.

Revenue from linear TV and radio broadcast remained relatively stable, increasing 0.2% (£0.2m) year-on-year to £111.8m.

“We’ve delivered another year of strong growth, with revenues up 7% and for the second consecutive year paying over £1 billion to songwriters, composers and publishers,” said Andrea Czapary Martin, CEO at PRS. “In just 10 years, PRS has doubled the value flowing back to rightsholders, £621m in 2016 to £1.24bn in 2025, by accelerating licensing in new markets and securing new terms with major existing customers.

“I believe success for a society shouldn’t be measured by the money collected. It must be measured by how quickly, fairly and accurately the songwriters and composers receive the royalties they are due.”

Over 37,000 members received royalties from live performances, with live music playing a key role in supporting emerging artists. A quarter of all first-time earners received royalties because their music was performed live, demonstrating how value flows from grassroots through to payment.

PRS has formally supported the live music sector in several ways; it has recently committed to supporting grassroots music by waiving the £1 grassroots contribution from its licensing fees, and its Livelihood campaign aims at encouraging setlist submission and education around distributions.

“In 2025, we saw particularly strong growth in live, with more creators earning from performances than ever before, including many being paid for the first time,” said Martin. “We moved to monthly payments for online streaming, giving creators faster access to the money they’ve earned and the insights they need to understand how their music is performing, all with the aim of continuing to deliver a world-leading royalty distribution service in a rapidly evolving music landscape.”

Image credit: John Marshall/JM Enternational