PRS for Music to get play-by-play data from 7,000 UK venues

PRS for Music will begin incorporating play data from around 7,000 UK shops, bars and public spaces into its royalty payments from December 2026. The UK collection society announced the partnership with business music streaming service Soundtrack on Wednesday, October 28.

The feed shows which tracks are played across the premises that use Soundtrack’s platform, and PRS will use it in payments to songwriters, composers and music publishers. PRS said it will reduce its reliance on comparable data used to estimate usage where direct information about what was played has not been available. The deal expands the society’s existing work with background music providers.

Public performance revenue, which covers live music and music played in settings such as shops, restaurants and bars, reached £313.4 million ($413 million) in 2025, up 9.1% year over year. PRS paid out £1.07 billion ($1.41 billion) in royalties that year.

Soundtrack’s customers include Ole & Steen, Uniqlo, Dr. Martens, Four Seasons Hotels and Resorts, Kiehl’s, Joe & The Juice and TAG Heuer. PRS says the UK Parliament uses the service too.

Ben McOwen Wilson, who became PRS CEO on October 12 after serving as Managing Director for EMEA at Google Play, said: “Where we can know what music has actually been played, and the technology is accurate and cost-effective, we should use it.” He added that PRS has worked with partners this way for years, and that Soundtrack brings “actual usage data from thousands more businesses across the UK.”

Soundtrack founder, CEO and chairman Ola Sars said the company’s research shows that in most countries public performance royalties are distributed on proxy data, not actual usage. Soundtrack says it has direct licensing agreements with thousands of rights holders and a repertoire of 150 million songs.

Soundtrack operates in 75 countries. In February 2026 it acquired UK-based Ambie and Belgium’s Tunify, and both are being folded into the Soundtrack brand.