Publisher agreements
An agreement is a contract that lets a publisher manage or administer a piece of music or catalogue, on behalf of a writer or another publisher.
Types of agreement
Writer to publisher
- Exclusive Songwriter agreement: covers all the writer's music
- Specific Agreement: a specific piece of music is covered
- Part-Catalogue Agreement - a collection of the writer's music is covered
PRS for Music will not accept agreements that entitle the publisher to more than a 50% performance share.
Publisher to publisher
- General Catalogue Agreement: covers all works in a catalogue
- Part Catalogue Agreement: a collection of the publisher's music is covered
- Administration Agreement: covers an entire catalogue but does not assign rights
- Specific Agreement: covers a specific piece of music
Publishers do not have to tell writers if they enter into an agreement with another publisher.
How to register an agreement
When publisher members register works they need to provide an agreement number. New agreements can be registered online through your online account.
If you have already registered the agreement but cannot locate your number you can find it in the ‘search your agreement’ option when registering a work in the Register My Music tool.
Terminating publisher agreements
Publishers should log into their account and select ‘register or amend works’, then ‘terminate an agreement’ and follow the instructions. Note that many agreements contain retention clauses which enable publishers to retain the rights to the works covered by the agreement beyond the termination date.
If writers believe their agreement with a publisher has ended and the publisher has not terminated it, they should first contact their publisher and request they do so. If that fails to resolve the issue, please raise a query with us.
LI2 agreement
Also known as the Library Side Agreement, the LI2 is an addendum to the MCPS Main Agreement (MA2), which grants the rights in the Production Music Sound Recording (PMSR) to MCPS for licensing alongside the musical works as part of the various production music rate card schemes.
MCPS controls the right to make a recorded copy of the musical work for all its registered works. For library (or production) music, MCPS controls two additional rights:
- the right to make a copy of the original sound recording of the musical works
- the right to broadcast the sound recording
Frequently asked questions
You should have a copy of the agreement, as it is a legal declaration, alongside your MCPS MA2 membership agreement, but if you need to confirm then please email publisherquery@prsformusic.com.
If you haven’t signed the LI2 Agreement but do have works indicated as Library Works on ICE, these will not receive a weighting as we are not licensing the PMSR on your behalf.
No - it is still necessary to tick the Library Flag box on ICE. We don’t automatically treat all works under an account with an LI2 Agreement as library works. Get in touch via publisherquery@prsformusic.com and once verified we can instruct ICE to update your works under that account to be reflected as library works, if you are an LI2 signatory.
When registering works online, verified libraries must always tick the box that states “Library Work” on the first page of the works registration process.
When registering works using CWR, you will need to flag it as a library work in the ORN record and list the work identifier or Library Production Number.
Further information
A legal referral service is available for members.
