PPL PRS Announce New ‘Featured Entertainment’ Tariff

New Specially Featured Entertainment tariff applies to in-person and streamed DJ sets.

Guess what? Something is about to become more expensive. Who would have thought it? In this case it is the price you have to pay for playing music in your bar, in certain circumstances. Music licensing body PPL PRS have announced a new Specially Featured Entertainment Tariff which will be phased in over a seven year period, beginning this January.

The new tariff applies to any event during which the playing of recorded music is a featured attraction – discos, DJ sets, and other dance events all fall within the tariff’s remit. The PPL PRS web page lists numerous links to some of the most confusing guidance and FAQ documents BarLifeUK have ever read, but it a nutshell it seems that bars will now have to pay £0.88 per hour of music for every 25 guests attending the event, so 50 people listening to a 2 hour DJ set would cost £3.52. for example.

However in addition to the cost, the tariff places responsibility on venues to count guests in and out of events as they progress, and the guidance is full of grey areas such as multi-room venues making judgements about whether guests in different parts of the building can hear the music clearly enough to be enjoying it, and therefore be included in the tariff payment bodycount.

You can read full, and baffling, documentation on the new tariff, which, incidentally, was constructed with agreement with UK Hospitality and the British Beer and Pub Association, on the PPL PRS website here.