MVT pilot study shows only 21 per cent of live music from grassroots venues is registered repertoire amidst battle for fairer PRS payments

A new study from the Music Venue Trust has looked into whether current royalty distribution methods properly reflect the music being played in grassroots music venues – and found that only 21 per cent of tracks are properly registered. READ MORE: The ticket levy that could save grassroots venues and artists: what happens next? The pilot study came in collaboration with Audoo – a company that has developed technology to monitor and observe how royalties are collected and distributed to artists when their music is played. Carried out between August and September 2026, the study was conducted to see how accurately existing music licensing models reflect the repertoire being performed in grassroots venues. It was also designed to help highlight the potential for technology to improve royalty distribution to songwriters. Across the 623 hours of live performance audio, the technology identified 134 hours (21 per cent) as matching songs registered with PRS For Music. Music Venue Trust has said that these findings are consistent with its estimates. MVT also highlighted that the findings back up how it previously challenged the assumption that there is a 100 per cent registered-repertoire, ...