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PRS membership categories

Our PRS membership categories determine your right to attend and vote at the Annual General Meeting (AGM) and the number of votes you’re entitled to. They also determine whether you’re eligible to stand to become a Council Member on the Members’ Council  and nominate other members to stand.

There are four categories of PRS membership:

  1. Standard
  2. Voting
  3. Voting Plus
  4. Principal Voting

The below table shows more information on the differences between the categories:

* if meeting criteria under 'Additional voting rights of Principal Voting membership'  
Standard Voting Voting Plus Principal Voting
Access to Annual Report & Accounts Yes Yes Yes Yes
Attend AGMs No Yes Yes Yes
One vote on a show of hands No Yes Yes Yes
One vote on a poll or ballot No Yes Yes No
Ten votes on a poll or ballot No No No Yes
An additional 10 votes on a poll or ballot No No No Yes*
To nominate or be nominated for the Members' Council No No No Yes
Five votes in writer ballot only No No Yes No

Your category is decided by your length of membership, PRS royalty earnings and the extent to which these earnings meet, or exceed, certain financial thresholds which are explained below.

When joining, you’ll be admitted as a Standard member, but you can qualify for promotion to Voting, Voting Plus or Principal Voting membership in a future year after our yearly promotion process which is overseen by the Council.

The financial thresholds are set by the Members' Council and approved by members in a general meeting. The thresholds are fixed and adjusted every year in line with the percentage change in RPI (retail price index) published in December for the previous years.

Standard membership

If you’re a new member, or a member whose royalty earnings don’t meet the criteria for promotion to Voting or Principal Voting member, you’re known as a Standard member.

Voting membership

You can be promoted to be a Voting member if your total royalty earnings in the previous one to three years are equal or more than the following amounts:

Writers Publishers
£1,707 £8,536

If at any time during that period you were a member of an affiliated society, the total will include royalties paid by us to that society.

To become a Voting member, you must have been a member of PRS or an affiliated society for at least a year.

If you are a successor member, you will automatically be admitted as a Voting member.

Voting Plus membership

As approved by members at the 2024 AGM, a new class of Voting Plus Member will have 5 votes in a Ballot to determine the eligibility of writer candidates for appointment to the Members’ Council. As writer members are the only members entitled to vote in the Ballot for Writer Council Members, membership of the new class will be limited to writer members.

The approved qualifying criteria for promotion to this category is the mid-point between the Voting Membership and Principal Voting Membership.

Principal Voting membership

You can be promoted to be a Principal Voting member if your royalty earnings meet the financial threshold for two of PRS’ three preceding financial years. Your earnings must be equal to or more than the following amounts for each year:

Financial Threshold
Writers £11,952
Publishers and successors £59,757

For example, you would need to reach this threshold in 2023 and either 2021 or 2022 as well. If at any time during that period you were a member of an affiliated society, the total will include royalties paid by us to that society.

Once you are a Principal Voting member, you will remain one regardless of if your royalty earnings dip below the financial thresholds shown above.

Additional voting rights of Principal Voting membership

As a Principal Voting member, you can be eligible for an additional 10 votes in a poll or ballot if your total royalty earnings are equal to or above the following amounts (depending on your joining date):

Joined on or before 1 Jan 2004

(total royalties for period 1 Jan 2004 to 31 Dec 2023)

Joined on or before 1 Jan 2022

(total royalties for period 1 Jan 2021 to 31 Dec 2023)

Writers £119,516 £239,031
Publishers and successors £597,567 £1,195,134

The eligibility for these additional 10 votes is reviewed on a yearly basis.

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