Here’s Video 1 in my series showing you how to claim PPL UK Income. In this video I take you through the search process for a Bach Motets CD that I recorded as a member of the Monteverdi Choir. It seemed a good one to claim for, as it won a Grammy, is a best seller and has had lots of plays on the radio.

PPLUK is the professional body that licenses recorded music played in public and broadcast on radio, TV and the Internet. It collects royalties and holds them until a PPL member claims them. Once you make a claim it then pays you any moneys owing and goes on to monitor airplay and pays any ongoing revenue to the claimant. If you have conducted, sung or played on a recording, even if you were only one of an 80-piece choir or a large orchestra, there may be some money owed to you.

In my experience, the website is quite difficult to navigate and the search process often comes up with a result that denies that the recordings even existed – even though you know they do!

Many musicians find the process overwhelming and turn to people who offer services making claims for you. Quite correctly, they charge a percentage of money received and any ongoing earnings.

I admit it can be very time consuming and confusing doing your first claim and adding new claims – especially it often takes a while for the record company to register the recording in order for you to be able to claim. If you do have the time and patience to do your own claims then you’ll receive ALL of the income due to you, both now and in the future.

Let’s face it, with our employment being so erratic, time is often the thing that we are rich in.

My advice is – keep you BPI and Pact forms and spend a windy, rainy day a couple of times a year checking for new repertoire.

There are currently five videos in the series and if you would like help with any other aspect of PPL, please email me and I’ll do another video for you!

disclaimer – The author fleetingly refers to a certain conductor as saint instead of sir in this video. This is entirely accidental and does not reflect the views of this website.

Here is the link to Video 2 entitled The PPL Claims Basket, where I take you through the next step in how to claim PPL.