PPL PRS Ltd Anmeldelser 501

If I had the option to give them a minus rating, I would without hesitation. An absolutely vile company with zero ability to deploy a solitary atom of common sense or discretion.

Long story short, my daughter launched an online fitness class in Jan 2021 during COVID lockdown. She paid the fee for the appropriate licence so she can use protected music during her classes. PRS for Music Ltd then unilaterally withdrew the licence mid-year, thus closing down her online biz. She could have asked them for a pro-rata refund (around £49.00) for the remaining licence period, but she let it go. She thought, as any reasonable person would, that that was the beginning and end of the matter.

Guess what? That's right, they invoiced her for the subsequent year (2022)!! That's AFTER they withdrew their own licence! You just couldn't make this stuff up. They eventually realised their mistake and cancelled it. End of 'short' story, you might think? You wish. They then proceeded to issue yet another invoice for 2023. And no, I'm not kidding. Cue a flurry of exchanges between them, their atrocious legal reps - Pannone Corporate LLP - and me. But even that wasn't enough to forestall proceedings - after they had already cancelled a previous invoice. How they ever imagined they had a viable claim simply beggars belief.

We stood our ground, put in a counterclaim, and as the hearing date approached, the bunch of cowards threw in the towel. What a surprise. Which only goes to show, the only way to deal with bullies who use litigation as a tool of intimidation is to stand up to them. But they messed with the wrong family this time, and it ended up costing them £££. All they had to do was let sleeping dogs lie, just as my daughter did with 50% of the fee she paid.

And yes, that was the short version!

REPLY TO PPL PRS REP.

It's a bit too late for that now, isn't it? This fiasco is done and dusted, and we were not expecting anything else from your criminal outfit. The only remaining question here is why your attack dogs ever thought they had a viable claim against my daughter AFTER PRS for Music Ltd withdrew their own licence?

We gave your company unassailable evidence of its cancellation, yet some jobsworth automaton in your organisation still thought that litigation was the way to go. Why? What on earth was going through their head when they made that asinine decision?

Whatever the reason, it backfired on you pretty spectacularly, and if the courts made allowance for the stress and anxiety you inflicted on my daughter, your costs would have multiplied tenfold - at least. It was fortunate for her that she had me to fight her corner.

Absolutely outrageous behaviour from this company and the credit control they use - expecting us to pay for music license as well as TV licenses (when does it end). I have been harassed by the credit control people for money threatening me with legal action if I don't pay. Saying I owe for a property I do not own nor play music at! I explained this to
them and they still are saying I owe the money! It's an utter disgrace. Iv looked through email and only received one email from this PPL. Think they just send the credit control to scare you into paying for something you shouldn't be. Furthermore I have two completely different number for the ppl group one off the creditors and a different one off the website, the creditors didn't even know the email address for the ppl that they are so called collecting money for, so all seems very Dodge to me! - How do you get rid of them!?

A few weeks ago I wrote a negative review for this company. I was dissatisfied on a number of issues. I was invited to make contact with them to try and resolve the issues. I had intended to make contact but my 'to do' list was full of more significant tasks. However, unprompted, their Complaints Advisor, Loren and Chris, the Community Building Team, made a telephone appointment with me that took place today. During that telephone meeting I raised a number of questions and Loren and Chris answered them fully and I was happy with their response. Loren and Chris responded to me in good time without my having to chase up the company. I thank them for that. I made a couple of suggestions about the tarrifs and Chris reassured me he would feed that back up the line and will be part of their annual review. Thank you Loren and Chris.

A Warning to Small Business Owners About PPL PRS.
Be cautious when signing up with PPL PRS — their practices can feel incredibly unfair, especially when circumstances change.
I have been paying for a PPL PRS licence for many years since I started playing music in my store. However, in September last year, a van crashed into my premises, severely damaging my office along with all the back-office IT systems and music equipment. It took nearly 10 months for the insurance process to be completed and for everything to be rebuilt.
During that time, I stopped playing music in the store, and due to ongoing complaints from upstairs tenants and the associated costs, I decided not to resume playing music after the rebuild.
Despite this, in August, PPL PRS issued a new invoice for £513, covering another year of licensing starting from August 25. I called their office and explained the situation — that I hadn’t played music for the past 12 months and wished to cancel the licence. I was told I needed to give 30 days' notice, and would be charged pro-rata for approximately 55 days. I was expecting a charge of around £85 based on that explanation.
However, I was later shocked to receive an invoice for £248 for just two months. I immediately emailed them to question the amount and their pro-rata billing method. Their response stated that, according to their terms and conditions, the pro-rata charges apply across the full year's rate and also include administrative fees — none of which could be waived.
It feels incredibly unfair that small business owners are treated this way. We are left paying large sums for services we are not using, under rigid and unreasonable terms. This experience has been frustrating and disappointing. I believe there should be greater scrutiny of PPL PRS’s practices, and the government should step in to ensure businesses are treated fairly, rather than being pressured by what feels like exploitative and inflexible policies.
I understand and appreciate the intention behind the music licensing system — supporting artists and writers is a good idea in principle. However, the way it is currently being implemented feels far from fair or transparent. Instead of operating with integrity, the process is often enforced with what feels like bullying tactics that alienate customers rather than support the creative community.
If the goal is to help artists profit from their work, then this approach is failing. Driving away businesses through rigid policies and unfair treatment only results in fewer licences being purchased — which ultimately means less money for the very artists the system is meant to protect.
Like any business, PPL PRS should value its customers. Treating them unfairly will only lead to loss of trust, lost revenue, and damaged reputation. Based on my experience, I will not be signing up with them again, nor would I recommend them to others. If music is needed in-store, it's far better to play royalty-free music or avoid playing music altogether than to deal with this system.

Taken over a small (4/5 bed guest house) with TVs in the room and wanted to do the right thing and continue the payment for the PRS/PPL. Found prevoius owners one @ around £50 + VAT.
Sent details though and sent an invoice for best part of £500! had to chase as didnt get any response fro the emails, then eventually back and forwards with Dean. Asked to clarify a few points, ie why is it more (SO MUCH MORE!), what each element covers, and what if any is the discrection they could show to a very small family business run from our own home. Repsonse were basically " thats what it is", "last years prices were wrong", "its a different licence so you have to pay it". utter confusion for me. i asked to a simple breakdown of the charges, but keep getting very short replies. spoken to so many similar business who say there licences are no where near £500. Seems sert up to harvest the low hanging fruit and take advantage of small buinesses who want to do the right thing and get the licence. very very bad experience.

This so called company is something you would expect from a dictatorship like North Korea, not the UK. There needs to be an Investigation into their practises of bullying, corruption and dodgy terms and conditions ( which you are ever told about).
Useless correspondence back from them, delay tactics obviously, utter crap about their admin fees we have to pay to run their company.
We are trying to close out business and getting them to actually acknowledge that is impossible. Send invoices out two months before the due date expecting payment. Anyone working for this company should hand their head in shame and if they have any moral fibre in them they should leave.

Absolute rip off company
They charging me £900 for one day music which it.
They did not give any notice and they are sending bay lift to my shop to collect the money
They harassed me and my wife calling me 10 times a day threatening me that if I pay they do this and try hat

Harassment is an understatement. Call up all the time asking for one of the directors, wont talk to anyone else and just keep saying they will call back. Just stop calling we don't play any music, couldn't if we wanted to! Must have called a total of 20 times so far. Enough is enough just f@@k off!

What an absolute joke and a rip off.
Make sure you read your T&C's carefully as it seems even if you are a day late telling them you wish to end the subscription then they have multiple minimum costs they want to charge.
The lad I spoke to was friendly enough, but every time I asked something I had to go on hold, so the total call took 45 minutes just to say I want to cancel the renewal.
I felt this was a deliberate act just to somehow get more money out of the call cost.
With the final invoice for about £250 for missing the cut off by 2 days, "I was advised to pay when I can", then got threats of legal action in the post after about 2 weeks.
Extremely unprofessional company.

Always dread receiving our annual invoice. I usually email the company to complain but decided to phone. What a difference. Spoke to Harry to discuss payment, he reviewed the invoice I had received and was able to reduce the charges for juke box and we agreed a payment plan. What a relief. Strongly advise any small company to pick uo the phone and ask for Harry.

the harassment from this company is borderline a criminal offence. the amount of times they have phoned us to be told we don't play music or that we have no control over those things have given multiple ways to contact head office yet they still call the employees with there utter rubbish making the staff panic and feel harassed. absolute disgrace of a company.

I had a very disappointing experience with Miriam, the manager. She was rude, unprofessional, and difficult to understand due to her accent. Instead of addressing my concerns, she rushed me to pay the invoice with no effort to resolve the issue. After reading other reviews, it seems many people have had similar experiences. I now feel this company may be targeting small businesses for quick payments. I wouldn’t recommend them.

Absolute harassment from this company for years now. We don’t play music yet receive phone calls letter and emails off them. No idea how they got my email in the first place because we don’t advertise it. I also had a member of staff ring my place of work 8 times in a row each time saying “I’m going keep ringing until you pay for a music license” I mean that in itself lacks professionalism and is harassment!!! A few years back I received a string of invoices with different amounts on them demanding payment, the prices made no sense whatsoever. They are bully’s and using a loop hole in the law harassment people for money without any proof whatsoever. It’s disgusting behaviour

PPL PRS Ltd keeps sending me invoices for using music in my business, yet I don’t use any music at all — they just assume I do. Honestly, it’s an absolute disgrace!
You are aggressive, assuming that a company must pay while flooding the mailbox and email with invoices for non-existent services. The worst of the worst.

PPL PRS have just replied to my review on TRUSTPILOT apologising and advising me to get in touch on an email address that is an ‘invalid recipient’.
AND then just sent me another bill for £653.52.
No contact number and the email is no reply!!

I would have put zero stars but that is not an option. Looking at the reviews, customer service is not a high priority. I telephoned in to ask if I could pay for six months instead of the full year as I was unsure if our lease would be continued after the six months. I was told yes and I paid there and then over the phone. This was followed by a credit company debt collection agency three days later chasing the balance. I spoke to them and back to PPL PRS and asked why they had passed the account over and I was told that it is because of the outstanding balance and I needed to clear it. Clearly they should train their staff correctly because the original handler started this whole situation because they appear to have handled my request incorrectly. I was also told that if I gave them notice today Aug 2025 to close the account at the end of Dec 2025 it would cost me £137.44 which amounts to 50% plus of the remaining yearly balance. If all calls are recorded I would suggest management listen to my original call and implement staff training.

Given this is supporting the entertainment industry you would think they could organise a party in a brewery.
Customer email address given isn’t monitored, phone opening hours much shorter than those published on the email or website. Basically if you book once it is really hard to cancel.

This company took over £1,400 from me after my business closed, never sent a single invoice, and ignored my emails. I now have a second court summons for a service I cancelled years ago. This is causing serious stress. I will not pay and am defending it legally. Avoid at all costs

I purchased a music licence back in covid for starting an exercise to music class, however this did not go ahead and I didn't require a licence. This was back in covid or just coming out of it where we could start doing things again. I received an email out the blue maybe couple of months ago saying I owe payment for all those years and that i had to pay invoices. I haven't received any invoices at all in that time. I actually thought it was a scam. I then received more emails saying I owe hundreds of pounds for my music license . I've never received a music licence each year or an invoice. The only contact I had was months ago after all those years. I came home today to find a signed letter from a debt collectors Broodies from Glasgow saying I must pay this or legal action Will occur. They Will allow me to pay in installments lol I will be paying nothing. I Don't require a licence, I don't record music at home which is also on the letter if I don't pay they will take to court. They can take me and end up paying expenses themselves. I've received no music licence each year or an invoice so how can they out the blue think someone us going to pay because they decide to send an email nearly 5 years later... stay clear of them. Complete scam artists

We opened our modest takeaway cafe (which has a few seats at a window bar and a couple of tables) a few months ago (Munchyhub Limited). I hope they read this review in order to better assess Muncyhub's situation.

Recently, I've been contacted by this company, out of the blue, alleging that they're representing the arm of the law, accusing us of playing Commercial music, and that we owe them a full year's license (£750 inc. VAT).

First of all, I work in Marketing and I'm well aware how these things work. I'm fully aware I'm not allowed to play Commercial music without a license, therefore all our employees have been instructed not to touch our music system or play anything that's not allowed. We've put procedures in place to let anyone in the company know about this, and we've kept records of what's been played every day. We even had to trigger an internal investigation into our own company to assess each employee and see what happened. We concluded that our employees have not touched our audio system in any way (apart from me, the owner).

Now, they (this company, PPL PRS) claim to have evidence that we played Commercial music. Their evidence (which they sent to us) is a couple of pictures from the inside of our coffee shop (including a picture of our speakers, as if owning a speaker automatically means we have to pay a license - there are hundreds of pictures of our shop over the internet, posted by our customers; those pictures do not represent proof of anything). The second evidence is a few seconds bad quality audio file, allegedly recorded in our shop: the recording is like what you hear in a train station, a crowd of people talking, laughing, etc, including a dim sound of a song in the background (they claim that the audio location is GPS tracked). We do not know where this was recorded or where that sound's coming from or who produced it. We do not hold any responsibility if any of our customers or visitors or passers by play or blast random songs on their phone/speakers/etc. in or around our shop (we keep our shop doors open because it's very hot in the summer).

I've clearly explained that we do not play Commercial music in our shop (only Royalty-Free music) and that the recording is no proof of us playing Commercial music. I took this "evidence" they sent us, to our solicitor who started to laugh about even calling this "evidence". So, we are willing to defend our position in court if needed.

Despite all these things, this company continues to harass us and have sent us an invoice for a full year's license. I clearly told them that I do not consent or approve of them sending me any invoice (all their calls are recorded). Approving or consenting to being issued/sent an invoice, basically, is like you admit their accusations and that you approve of having that bill/invoice issued against you and sent to you. We have not consented to being sent or issued any invoice. Despite clearly and repeatedly being informed of this (that we do not consent or approve of being issued the invoice), the company decided to go ahead and send the invoice anyway, and now continues to chase it.

We are going to dispute the invoice, and we are going to take this to court where we expect them to bring conclusive evidence of their made up accusations.

We've sent a cease and desist letter, and we are also asking the court to stop them harassing us if they don't stop.

I'm not sure how these guys are even legally allowed to exist as a company. They need to be reported to the police straight away. They don't stand any legal grounds for their "legal music license obligation" harassment.
Do not get intimidated by their threats of legal action or bailiffs. Let them chase all they want, and take you to court. They'll have to prove everything in court, which they know they can't.

We will update you of the developments, here.

UPDATE:
They have finally stopped chasing us and their made-up invoice, several months later.