MCPS Mandates and Annex Guidance
Your Mandates
When you become an MCPS member, you give MCPS authority to license your music/catalogue and then to collect and distribute royalties to you.
When applying, you can choose to exclude some categories of music use from the mandate you give MCPS.
For theatrical motion pictures, TV advertisements, radio adverts and TV programmes, you have three options:
- MCPS Only: MCPS will license all music use on your behalf. Our licensing teams can work to get the best possible royalty rates for members and deal with all invoicing and credit control activities.
- Member Only: potential music users will need to contact you directly to license the use of your work. Some members prefer this for specific categories of music use to keep full control of how their music is used, particularly where they have the resources to negotiate and license directly.
- MCPS on First Call: MCPS can license music use if the licensee contacts us first (still asking members for approval). If the licensee contacts the member, they have the option to either license directly or pass the request to MCPS.
While you’ll choose options when first applying, you can change these in future – there’s a three-month notice period.
There are also mandates for the following, where the options are MCPS Only or Member Only:
All other non-retail sound bearing copies – this includes a wide range of schemes for products not typically sold by retailers.
For example: products for promotional use, the manufacture and distribution of DJ mix compilations, physical products for schools and churches, videographers and amateur groups. This category also includes specialist music products, background music for an exhibition and background music services. Licensing for small business owners who want to copy music for a very specific purpose, e.g. fitness instructors & DJ’s is also included in this category.
Premiums - products used for marketing promotions as an incentive to acquire other products or services - e.g. a free CD given to anyone test driving a car.
Digital memory devices – products for storage of digital data which are supplied with some part (but not all) of that storage capacity pre-loaded with music content, but excluding any product which falls under any other licence or specific scheme (e.g. one of the AP schemes).
Novelties – toys, gifts and other products which include a musical chip and are available for retail sale to the public.
Music quiz games – music quiz games available for retail sale to the public.
Non-core Covermounts – music used on free CDs and other products included with a magazine or newspaper for sale to the public in the UK. The ability to opt-out relates to the relevant works on any covermount product for which a single member of MCPS controls 50% or more of the works on the product.
Non-Core Karaoke – the use of music and graphic lyrics in karaoke products made in the UK, for sale to the public. The non-core element and ability to opt-out relates to the relevant works on any karaoke product for which a single member of MCPS controls 50% or more of the works on the product.
Non-Core Exhibitions – recordings made for use in public exhibitions. The ability to opt-out relates to the relevant works within an exhibition for which a single member of MCPS controls 50% or more of the works in the exhibition.
Your Annexes to Membership Agreement MA2
There are also annexes to your agreement with MCPS that you can include where we will then include these rights for us to represent as part of your membership. You can choose to exclude any of these, and if you’d like more detail, you can read the full Membership Agreement (MA2) and Annexes here.
Rental and Lending Annex – the right to make copies of physical product(s) with the intent to rent and lend and issue to hire.
Multimedia Annex – the right to use your work/catalogue in optical media, including all interactive music-based products, feature films, karaoke, games, training and educational products, and informational and biographical products.
Online Annex – the right to use your work/catalogue in content that is made available in the online environment where it involves the reproduction of copyright musical works.
