PRS for Music Exits Russia. PRS has followed companies including Microsoft, Netflix, and Live Nation, by pulling out of Russia in response to the Ukraine conflict.
PRS for Music is the first performing rights organization (PRO) to exit the nation since the outbreak of war. PRS for Music announced the move (and plans “to offer our support” to members in Ukraine) this morning with the following statement:
“PRS for Music has today formally suspended, with immediate effect, our rights representation relationship with RAO, the Russian collecting society for musical works, pending confirmation of its separation from the Russian Government and those individuals and companies on the sanctions lists,” the London-headquartered entity said.
“We are also working with CISAC [The International Confederation of Societies of Authors and Composers] to consider the ongoing membership of Russian societies in the global network. It is not our desire to punish the Russian composer, songwriter, and publisher communities who support peace, and we will work with the global community to identify opportunities to amplify the voices of protest.
“We will be contacting all our members based in Ukraine to offer our support in their time of need and are working with PRS Members’ Fund to make financial support available to them,” finished the 108-year-old PRO.
PPL, BMI, ASCAP (which had an almost 10 percent decline in foreign collections in 2021), GMR, SESAC, and SOCAN alike don’t appear to have announced plans to cut ties with the RAO. Last week, a Disney Music Group exec said that the lack of payments from the RAO and the Ukrainian Agency of Copyright and Related Rights (UACRR) was “a big blow for us.”
