Instant recognition: why MRT must be embraced by nightclubs and festivals

Whether it’s local nightclubs or internationally renowned venues such as London’s Ministry of Sound and Manchester’s Warehouse Project, Music Recognition Technology (MRT) is continuing to revolutionise how music usage is being tracked and reported to collective management organisations (CMOs) for royalty collections.

Typically housed in a discreet device, MRT identifies recorded music that is played in a particular setting — such as during a DJ set at a nightclub or music festival — and matches it with results from a comprehensive database of works. Data reports are then generated and sent to CMOs like PRS for Music, ultimately increasing the accuracy of royalties that are paid to music creators for the use of their work.

As of February 2026, there are 62 MRT devices permanently installed in 36 venues across the UK, with plans to expand already in place. MRT is also used at up to a dozen music festivals every year to monitor DJ stages.

‘Where we sometimes experience a lack of setlist information, MRT provides us with comprehensive and accurate data,’ Ashley Howard, relationship manager for dance music at PRS, explains to M. ‘MRT therefore helps facilitate royalty payments to the creators whose music is played by DJs at licensed events.’

Producer and DJ John Truelove believes the introduction of MRT has been ‘an absolute game-changer for the electronic music community’.

‘Prior to its implementation, we knew our music was being played but it simply wasn’t being reflected in royalty distributions,’ he tells M. ‘The impact [of MRT] has been transformative: thousands more unique songs are being identified, countless creators’ works are finally being acknowledged, and performance income is appearing in their PRS statements.

‘The next step is expanding MRT into more clubs, specialist music venues and festivals nationwide so the data can be ever more representative of what’s being played.’

‘The impact [of MRT] has been transformative: thousands more unique songs are being identified, countless creators’ works are finally being acknowledged, and performance income is appearing in their PRS statements.' - John Truelove

Praise for the technology has also come from BBC Radio 1 DJ Jaguar, techno legend Alan Fitzpatrick and DJ/producer Dave Seaman, who in 2024 said: ‘I’m a keen supporter of technology that helps DJs to support the producers making the music we spin and depend on. It’s the lifeblood of the scene, but it’s getting increasingly harder to earn a living… Hopefully we’ll see more clubs adopting this technology and ensuring [creators and] producers get the remuneration they deserve.’

Global MRT market leader DJ Monitor, which first partnered with PRS and PPL on the use of the technology back in 2016, monitors and processes over a million DJ sets with its end-to-end service each year. The online DJ and mixing platform Mixcloud, meanwhile, has implemented granular track-level reporting for music within its catalogue of radio shows, DJ mixes and podcasts.

‘With our unique label licensing agreements and “Mixcloud Select” monetisation program, we make sure that not only a channel owner, but the underlying artists and tracks who get played, get paid,’ Nico Perez, Mixcloud co-founder and CEO, recently remarked about the platform’s embrace of MRT.

Despite these positive steps forward, there is still more to be done. While acknowledging that nightclubs and festivals have been operating in particularly challenging circumstances in the past few years, Greg Marshall, product consultant at DJ tech firm AlphaTheta (pictured, above), says the evident benefits of MRT still need to be widely communicated.

‘We need to win the hearts and minds of venues and overcome their concerns, as MRT can be low on their priority list,’ he tells M. ‘But creators are the foundation on which the music ecosystem is built, so we have a cultural responsibility to ensure they’re supported. This is the same for venues, as they’re the cultural spaces that bring people together.’

As Greg notes, it ‘shouldn’t solely be on a DJ to submit a setlist’ to a CMO. Simplifying the process of music reporting is one potential solution, and initiatives like KUVO Powered by DJ Monitor — the outcome of a 2024 partnership between the AlphaTheta-owned KUVO and the MRT specialists — are leading the way. Enabling DJs to support creators without needing to do anything more than play their tracks, KUVO Powered by DJ Monitor sees the latter’s MRT work in tandem with the former’s ability to capture the metadata of music (also known as Direct Metadata Collection) that is played through AlphaTheta’s popular Pioneer DJ units.

PRS took part in a successful trial of this service from late 2024 to 2025, with a long-term agreement subsequently being struck to utilise the technology and expand its reach. The natural ‘synergy’ between KUVO and DJ Monitor’s respective functions, as Greg points out, ‘can help solve the longstanding problem of gathering data from clubs and venues, and getting accurate information on what’s played’.

Collectively, venues that buy music licences from CMOs like PRS and PPL — enabling DJs and creators to perform in these spaces — can help generate significant royalties for songwriters and artists. That’s why PRS is working with influential music organisations such as the NTIA and AFEM to help venues realise the widespread benefits of MRT. Not only does it generate enlightening data on what music is being played in these venues, but adopting the technology can even play a part in the certification of operational and sonic excellence.

‘The International Nightlife Association has a Triple Excellence Seal that requires venues to use MRT,’ explains Greg. ‘That can shift the dial.’ Furthermore, as Ashley notes, there’s no extra cost to venues: ‘This data is used solely to help make accurate royalty payments and will not impact the cost of music licences for a venue in any way.’

‘We need to achieve greater industry awareness and understanding about MRT so that a fairer system becomes reality.’ - Ashley Howard, PRS for Music

Plans to roll out MRT on a wider scale are continuing at pace. KUVO Powered by DJ Monitor has already secured the support of the NTIA, while international messaging about the benefits of MRT is set to be distributed in countries such as Australia, the Netherlands and Spain. In Malta, the introduction of MRT at a single venue in 2025 resulted in the identification of more than 11,000 tracks by over 1,300 artists, spread across 500 hours of monitored performances — illustrating the scale of repertoire that can be captured when venues embrace the technology.

PRS, meanwhile, is looking to expand its collaboration with clubs and festivals to deploy MRT more widely.

‘Our goal at PRS is to maximise members’ royalties,’ Ashley explains. ‘This requires collaboration across the ecosystem, all the way from the DJ booth to the CMO. Venues must facilitate technology, rights holders must provide clean data and CMOs around the world must utilise MRT in a cost-effective manner.

‘We need to achieve greater awareness, understanding and participation across the industry so that a fairer system becomes reality.’

This article is taken from the latest issue of M Magazine, which you can read in full here.