PPL PRS Ltd Anmeldelser 501

Wish I could give them 0 star. When starting my business I made it clear I wanted a quote but I felt like they tricked me into a contract. I explained my business didn't start for another 2 months but they wanted their payment there and then. I explained this is a misunderstanding but still no sympathy to working with me. I asked for the recordings of our phone call they said they would send it. I asked 3 times and still nothing.

Just a money grabbing business.

I made the mistake of making a casual enquiry to PPL PRS regarding a business my wife was opening in our village the second week in January.

The first thing you notice , with this organisation is they don't advertise pricing. Even though they give links online for pricing, there is no pricing. Also, many of the links lead you back to the page you are on, or they simply don't work. The only way you can get pricing is to provide them with all your details. It became abundantly clear that the reason for this approach is so that they can aggressively bully and harass you into buying a license. Multiple calls and emails made on assumption that you are already publicly playing music and in breach of copyright.

My wife's business premises are approximately 20 square metres, she is a sole trader with no employees. We were quoted £541 per year to play streamed music from her phone to a portable speaker! It seems they are purposely and aggressively targeting small businesses with bullying and harassment tactics. emails titled "ACTION REQUIRED" (yes, in capitals). Another shady practice they employ is that you cant reply to their emails. so you have to either go online and pay, or speak to one of their agents.

My wife has now invested in a nice pair of Sony wireless headphones to listen to her music.

There are a huge amounts of complaints online about this organisation, not just on Trustpilot. Surely there needs to be some kind of investigation into their dubious practices. I cant wait for the stock standard PPL PRS response to this review telling me how sorry they are about my experience, and to let them investigate further.....Begone!!

I'm sorry to read all the dreadful comments about this company from the point of view of those wishing to licence music - but my problem is trying to register new music in their system. The website barely functions at all and any support tickets raised are never answered. Something is seriously wrong with this company.

I recently spoke with a representative over the phone to clarify the size of our eatery and our limited operating hours, which are only 24 hours a week. During the conversation, I expressed my concern about being overcharged over the years and questioned the current invoice, which appears extraordinarily and unjustifiably expensive.

Despite my attempts to seek clarity, the representative was unhelpful and rather bossy. According to their website, there should be options for royalty discounts or weekly usage payments, but none of these were mentioned during our call.

As loyal customers since 2018, we have never received any discounts or payment suggestions. Currently, we are being asked to pay £547 just for playing background music for a few hours each day. This seems like a total scam, with the company leveraging their legal rights to threaten customers instead of providing the support that small businesses desperately need in these times.

Considering this, I believe the best course of action is to cease playing any type of music and to protest against those who are exploiting businesses in this manner.

Call from a very rude lady regarding music licensing from O1164289830
Would not answer a simple question. Absolutely shocking to be honest. Totally unprofessional.

I have an account with this company going back over 8 years.
I received a telephone call from a debt collection agency informing me that I had an outstanding invoice from PPL PRS Ltd plus a surcharge fee which came a shock as I have never been contacted or received an invoice for the outstanding amount either by e-mail, post or telephone contact.
The bill plus the surcharge was paid immediately.
After the Christmas period was over, I telephoned PPL PRS Ltd to find out as to why no invoice was sent to me.
I checked my contact details with them, and they had an e-mail address that is no longer in use, but my address and telephone number were still the same and told me that I should have contacted them to update my e-mail address. (That’s great if you can remember who you gave your e-mail address to over the last 20 years)
So, before they send your details to a debt collection agency you would think they could have posted an invoice or telephoned to ask for payment.
This business uses unethical and unprofessional business practices.
Trustpilot reviews of 97% 1 star says it all.
And please don’t send a generic response.

£831 for this first year for a seven table cafe, seating 14 people. Despite efforts to impress how unreasonably expensive this fee is, and the impact it will have on my business, the robotic 'manager' - Marianne- was steadfast. £831.96 for my 5m x 3.5m shop floor. Marianne 'could guarantee that I might get up to 50% off next year'. No consideration, no flexibility, no support.

I run a small hotel and do not play any background music. The only audio in the building is from Freeview TVs in guest bedrooms. Despite this, PPL PRS issued invoices of more than £2,000, going back five years, all sent at the end of May 2025.
Not only were the invoices completely unexpected, but during part of this period our business was closed due to COVID lockdowns and also due to serious illness in the family, as my wife was undergoing treatment for Non-Hodgkin Lymphoma. Even while we were closed and not using any music whatsoever, PPL PRS continued to charge as if we were fully operational.
We immediately questioned the amounts because they made no sense for a small hotel with no background music. Unfortunately, one of their emails went into our junk folder and, instead of attempting to contact us properly, they sent the account straight to a debt collection company.
Later, PPL PRS admitted the invoices were wrong — the number of bedrooms and the type of licence they charged us for were incorrect. After their own corrections, the true amount should have been under £500, not over £2,000.
Despite acknowledging their errors, they are still demanding late payment fees and nearly £200 in legal costs, even though the delay was minimal and the dispute exists solely because they issued incorrect invoices. Meanwhile, they took over four years to produce the original wrong invoices.
As a small business, especially one that has already struggled through COVID closures and personal hardship, this treatment has been incredibly upsetting. It feels like harassment, and it raises serious concerns about how PPL PRS operates and whether small businesses have any real protection.
The complaints department has offered no meaningful help, and we are left dealing with the consequences of their mistakes.
In my view, this company’s behaviour is unethical, unfair, and deeply damaging to small businesses simply trying to survive.

I work for a charity, a community centre, and many of our activities would be greatly improved with music. However, we cannot have music now, because of the unfair pricing system of PPL PRS ltd.

They demanded 2% of our income as their price for 1 year's subscription. That amounted to £2000, way out of our budget. Why isn't it 2% of our profit? Most years we don't have any surplus (especially since Covid) so this price is outrageous. If it was £200 we could manage it, but £2000? No way!

Had an invoice for £542.97 and it should be £373.94. When questioned they said it’s because they had to come to me ??? The letter just says license invoice. Surely you have to state the payments. When is someone going to stop these bandits wow !!!!!!!!!!

These guys have no clue! I have it in writing that they did not engage a debt collection agency against me and that the team was actually part of their company - a blatant lie! They then switched and said it was a different account that I have and to confirm all of my details again, details they already have! Time wasters.

Looking forward to going to the ombudsman and court over the impact to my credit score due to their mistake.

Very very BAD

Who are these cowboys?
And why is no-one questioning their unethical and unprofessional business practices?!

My dealings with them have been perfunctory, but already I'm suspicious of their integrity and seemingly dodgy business practices (the reason I checked out Trustpilot).

I made an enquiry through their website 2 weeks ago and have been hounded daily by call back voice messages urging me to call them back.
This in itself felt suspicious and the tactics of an aggressive sales campaign.
Judging by others' experiences, clearly their sole purpose is to profiteer. To me, this feels contradictory to their alleged goal of supporting the music business.
I'll be investigating further!

We needed to amend our usage because the business closed. I put the request in and was told I would get a response by Monday. I didn't hear anything so I chased and chased.

The next contact I got was debt collectors chasing a debt saying I hadn't been in touch. I contacted and was told this would stop and my bill would be amended.

I was harassed and bullied by debt collectors claiming to be these guys telling me I owed 5k and I hadn't spoken to anyone else.

I called again and again and this kept on happening.

Eventually they managed to sort my bill. So instead of the claim of me owing them £5000, they actually owed me £800.

Make sure you understand your charges and bill or they will bully you and rob you! I've got evidence of this and they should be investigated!

I find both their websites very awkward with misleading links and the fact that it keeps opening new pages rather than 'moving on' make it annoying. Some links terminology and explanations on how to do things are written in a 'too technical' way and for a lot of people who are doing this on their own behalf as a musician or a sole performer/ writer it's a real head f***.
A glossary page may be a good idea to explain the difference and or define "Performer' "Musician" "rights holder" "publisher" "writer" "copyright" etc
I also find the sites very slow and when I have rung up, on the rare occasions, to query something, I do not get a straight answer as I believe the person on the other end of the phone doesn't know the answer to these things either. Try asking them to explain how to deal with copyright free music. What about rights holders who are also performers! etc

Would give no stars if the option was there - this company uses bullying tactics.
We have a community space at our shopping centre and once a month we have a tea dance for the elderly and as we play music was told that we are required to pay £775:96 - the sum was calculated on the size of the unit. Nobody ever visited, and I was told on the telephone what the sum was and that we needed to pay it - reluctantly this was paid. We relocated the community space to a smaller space as the large unit was relet to a paying tenant.

I never heard anything from PPL PRS until a court proceedings letter landed - we couldn't get hold of any one to discuss so again reluctantly paid - we have now received a letter from Pannone Corporate saying that due to late payment we have incurred court proceeding costs of £191.88 of which must be paid. I rang Panone and spoke to someone very aggressive and in no way trained, no telephone recording in place which make me very suspicious of the whole set up and I will be taking legal advice. I cant get to actually speak with PPL PRS and Pannone are saying that the ownness is on me - very frustrating in deed.

Extremely Unfair and Aggressive Experience with PPL PRS

I’m genuinely shocked by the experience we’ve had with PPL PRS (TheMusicLicence).

Our business, Fitnastic Health Club, has been using Pure Energy GO since July 2023, paying monthly for a fully licensed music subscription that covers all public performance rights for fitness facilities. We even renewed our subscription through July 2025. The only gap was a short 2-month period during refurbishment, which was purely due to we were closed for 2 months, we reinstated the subscription in October and have full proof of all payments.

Despite this, PPL PRS representatives turned up unannounced with a £2,500 bill, claiming we owed for a music licence we already had covered. Two days later, they returned with bailiffs and police which is more shocking no one is with small business even the police is with them and wasting their time on matter like this , threatening to bring a van and remove property unless we paid immediately. We showed them everything — our Pure Energy GO invoices, bank statements, and emails — but they refused to even review the documents.

In the end, we were forced to pay £2,900 on the spot just to stop them from taking equipment. There was no proper notice, no clear explanation, and no breakdown of how that figure was calculated. It felt completely unjustified and intimidating.

We’ve since filed a formal complaint and are seeking a full refund. I would strongly urge other small businesses to double-check what you’re already paying for before letting PPL PRS pressure you into anything. Their communication, transparency, and handling of this situation have been appalling.

They are constantly calling and sending letters, I tried explaining I do not need any music licence, I don’t have tv I don’t have radio I do not play any type of music. They are constantly threatening me that they will take me to court, this is harassment pure harassment.

Been paying these cowboys for 21 years their customer service is shocking.
Sadly I think a pre requisite for working there is that you are extremely good at being rude and disrespectful.
Requesting payments without invoices saying they had no idea on us changing our email address when somehow they managed to bill us last year.
A simple request for what’s normal in a business transaction is met with aggressive dialogue, diplomacy is needed when dealing with them as it’s a challenge.
If this is who the government recommends to conduct this service it’s appalling seriously needs an overhaul.
Will be checking who I can complain to further on this

Edit:
In response to the reply from PPL PRS, I have messaged that email address 4 times and had no reply at all. I have also since been sent an ‘overdue’ invoice from over a year ago which is complete nonsense and guess what? After messaging almost 10 times I have received no reply. I am now taking the matter further as they are complete con artists and I am sick of it

Awful company to deal with! Tried for a month to set up a license. Most messages ignored, spoke to 4 different people, sent them all the requested details and none of them sorted anything out. I then got letters threatening me with legal action for not having a license.
Finally spoke to someone who was half decent and sorted out the license and set up direct debit payment.
A couple of weeks later i have received a letter and 3 emails threatening me with legal action as I don't have a license. Absolute shameful company who I wish I didn't have to deal with.
And I'm sure they'll respond to this with the usual 'please email us at .......... so we can look into it for you'. Guess what? I've already emailed and surprise surprise nobody has replied. Next time I get a email/letter/phone call threatening me I'll be reporting them for harassment.