Music Blogs

So, the boss of song royalties collecting society PRS For Music is out of the door. And pretty pronto too, with an official statement from the society that seems just a little bit like a very polite way of saying Alan Sugar's catchphrase. But perhaps I'm reading too much into it. See what you think.

Confirming that Steve Porter would stand down as CEO with immediate effect, after two years in the job and ten years with the society, an official statement said, simply: "The boards feel that as the business faces new challenges, a new set of skills is required to take PRS For Music forward". Hmm, "a new set of skills". Ouch. It doesn't seem that Porter has a new job to go to, and PRS certainly don't have an immediate replacement for him, the top man's departure seemingly very sudden, and a surprise even for many PRS staffers.

Still, the society did say a few nice things about their former chief exec, telling CMU: "Steve has made an invaluable contribution over his ten years of loyal service to PRS For Music. Steve joined in 1999 as Director of Finance, moving on to Executive Director of Finance, then Managing Director. Steve was appointed Chief Executive in April 2007, where his vision and drive has made a significant impact in improving many areas of the business".

The MD of PRS's MCPS division, Jeremy Fabinyi, will fill in as CEO until a new boss man (or woman) can be recruited.

Porter's sudden departure follows an eventful six months for the collecting society, which began with a rebrand - from the slightly tedious MCPS/PRS Alliance to the more snappy PRS For Music - and a concerted effort to gain a higher public profile. That aim was achieved almost immediately, though possibly not in the best of circumstances, when YouTube announced the collecting society's online streaming royalty rates were totally unrealistic and promptly pulled all premium music videos off its UK service. The squabble between the collecting society and the Google-owned video website continues, with most major artist videos still blocked to UK YouTube users.

Elsewhere, Porter got to announce the society would make a record royalty payout to its members - the songwriters and publishers it represents - though he was forced to admit at a recent AGM that the slump in interest rates would hit the society's finances.

There was also an albeit quiet fallout behind the scenes when PRS announced it was slashing some of its online royalty rates - possibly in a bid to placate the aforementioned YouTube - but EMI Publishing, one of the world's biggest owners of song copyrights, said it wasn't happy with the new rates, and announced PRS would no longer represent its catalogue in the streaming domain. With reports that execs from at least two other major music publishers had expressed concerns at the new streaming royalty rates, some wonder if that quiet squabble might have had a role in Porter's sudden departure - you do have to wonder how PRS could announce such radical (if sensible) royalty rate changes without three of the four publishing majors being on side.

Anyway, whatever, it's certainly true that the licensing of performing rights is an increasingly important part of the music industry, and that increases the power and influence of the collecting societies, and especially PRS, which has always enjoyed a pretty wide remit in terms of the areas in which it represents its member's rights. Perhaps they really do need a different man at the top to capitalise on new opportunities and spearhead that growing influence.