PPL PRS Ltd Anmeldelser 501

Receive regular harassment calls from PPL PRS Ltd who request data protected information over the phone. Claim to be raising income for performers (which I have no objection to) but in fact pay vast salaries to their directors. I would not use music on this basis alone.

Some constructive suggestions.
While the company and it's parents may be legitimate and operate within the law, scrolling through the reviews on Trustpilot makes it clear there is a very real issue with their customer relationships. When small businesses get multiple calls from scammers every day, PPL PRS Ltd approach comes across as no different and naturally potential clients are suspicious.

Pay the CEOs and directors of PRS and PPL a more reasonable salary, say £80,000 pa max, and invest the millions saved in customer relations and better incomes for genuine performers and writers.

Absolute harassment from this company! I never signed up for their services, yet they sent me an invoice out of nowhere, demanding over £600 for a music license I do not need. After doing my research, I found out they use intimidation tactics on small businesses to force them into paying.

I immediately disputed their invoice in writing, making it clear that I do not play music and do not require a license. Instead of responding, they completely ignored my letter and continued bombarding me with threats of legal action. This is bullying, plain and simple!

Their aggressive letters caused unnecessary stress and wasted my time. No legitimate company should operate like this. If you are a business owner, do NOT be intimidated by their tactics. Demand proof and stand your ground. I have reported them to Trading Standards and will be escalating further if their harassment continues!!

Due to business closure we had to cancel our music licence.
Neil at ppl prs was a great help, he dealt with it all within a day, including starting the process for a small refund as we close the business a few weeks before we had paid up to.
Great service, thank you Neil for making that process straight forward :-)

If I could do minus Stars I would.
I have nothing at all to do with the Company I am an employee and yet they continue to send me emails at stupid o clock in the morning about an outstanding amount due for the business. I have called them and told them I have nothing to do with the business and they continue to use my private email address with another persons name demanding a payment for a licence. What a Chef has to do with a music licence is beyond me. Absolute disgrace cannot get through to them I have nothing to do with the running of the business or music. I only work there. Maybe they will start harassing the Bar staff next!

continual harassment, invoices then surcharges and more threats, despite writing back to this company by recorded delivery to explain we have music from AKM which is royalty free and does not require a licence they continue to ignore this and continue to harrass me.

A horrible company!
Tried to charge me far more than the exact same bed and breakfast layout as next door, sent me a £100 "surcharge" when I wanted to speak to them about a reduction of rooms and open season, only to change me the exact same amount for 30% fewer rooms.
They said they would waive the surcharge if I payed my account in full then sent me emails threatening legal action .
They are the worst company I have ever dealt with, and I've been self employed for over 25years.
Not promoting music, just fu@%ing greedy, threatening pirates!

Brought a music license for my hairdressers. Very helpful and knowledgeable. The reviews slating the music license don’t understand where the money goes. My partner is in a band and is very grateful for the royalties that he receives! Keep up the good work!

The worst legitimate organisation I've ever had to deal with. PPL PRS insist on creating invoices and accounts without permission in order to extort money without good reason. Their approach is sneaky and they phone out of the blue and try and trap you into agreeing to a contract.

If you are thinking of playing music at your business AVOID paying these people and choose a ROYALTY FREE music service instead. (In contrast Background Sounds are excellent by the way.)

These people are awful.

Edit (after their response below): So PPL PRS think the issue 'seems to have been resolved'? If by that they mean they have successfully bullied an underfunded local playgroup into overpaying for a service that we neither need or want with the threat of debt enforcement/legal action, then sure, it's been resolved. Well done PPL PRS, you must be really proud of your work.

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My friend and I started a small local children's event thing based around car toys - Hot Wheel, Scalextric, that sort of thing - really just as a bit of fun for our own kids. Unexpectedly it became moderately popular, particularly with SEN kids who didn't enjoy traditional children's activities like soft play and the like, but for some reason felt very at home with us, SO we kept it up, even though we didn't really make any money from it.

As we would have music playing in the background (the kids seemed to like that) I got in touch with PPLPRS of my own accord to check we didn't need anything from them, as we would happily play royalty free music. However, I was told that as we had played non-royalty-free music at one of our events already, we would need to buy a licence for a whole year, at a cost of £250ish, or they would take us to court.

It gets better. At no point was it mentioned that this was in fact a rolling yearly contract (I guess it's buried in the T&C's somewhere). So a year os so later they sent us another invoice, demanding the same amount, even though I had made it clear that we would use royalty free music going forward. I got in touch to say we do not need the Music Licence, however they said that I had missed the notice period for informing them. In fact, they sent their invoice after the notice period had expired. When i queried this, they said (this is a quote) - 'Unfortunately as a business we don't send renewal invoices out as a reminder that the licence is coming up for renewal.'

Nice.

I was told that there was a minimum fee attached to their tariffs (again, this was news to me) of approximately half the yearly cost. For a service I had made clear I did not need or want a year previously. I pointed out the unfairness of this repeatedly, but was just told to pay or get taken to court.

If you can, avoid contact with these people at all costs. If you need background music, use Pixabay or some equivalent to get it royalty free.

I’m on bereavement leave and this company sends emails adding on surcharges as the payment hasn’t been made . Money grabbing company only think of themselves

This company needs investigating …. totally lost for words as to how to describe my experience with them…. My mental health has very much been affected by this and they should not be allowed to treat people in such a manner.

A simple online search shows that even some of their own members/musicians that they claim to represent have considerable grievances against them.

The stress and fear they’ve caused me even though I’ve told them that my small business is nigh on bankrupt is atrocious ….they’re devoid of empathy, care and considerations of any kind.

How any of their customer services can come on here and try to defend them is unbelievable.

I applied for a music licence because I was planning playing music in my small shop.

I requested that the licence start from the date of the first invoice, as I was holding off playing music until the licence was in place.

So, on the 30th of September I get an email at 4:14 in the afternoon, containing the invoice for a licence starting on 26 September.

So, I didn't pay and I'm not playing music. If you idiots can't invoice me properly then we don't have a contract and you better tell your debt collection agency to stop harassing me.

Overcharging, taking misinformation from the internet I have rung and given correct information, received a smaller quote, which fits with my business. then another for 2 1/2 more.
The initial contact agents are harassing and intimidating, I am told they get the information from their 'spotters' who trawl Google !!!
After weeks of calling I am still facing yet another huge invoice.The whole experience is making me ill.
Their fees are not transparent and they still do not send out a breakdown on tariff of fees after continued requesting.
I really don't know where to turn for help, I have again called today and been told someone will call me back, but this clearly gets me nowhere. If you are reading this PPL/PRS perhaps you can give me the details for
Complaint/Compliance Manager or better still the CEO
Greg Aiello

Totally unscrupulous company! We decided to stop playing the radio in our café as the fees were too high. Cancelling has been a nightmare and they keep contradicting themselves. Firstly, I was told I would have to pay 1 years fees to cancel, then 1 months fees so I agreed and when i called in to make the payment it became way more as they said there was an admin fee to pay making the total nearly 1 years fees! Do not deal with this company!

PPL are no more than bullies pretending to be a professional company. They came into my shop, filmed & took photos which are forbidden. Rather than talk to you they did all this on the sly but still cannot confirm what I was playing that demands payment. They ignored my complaint and still the letters are sent demanding payment. Trading Standards need to look at how this company operates.

As a small business owner, I want to share my recent experience with PPL PRS regarding their cancellation policy. I attempted to cancel my music license but missed their one-month notice period by only two days. Despite this, they enforced the cancellation fee without flexibility or empathy, even though I acted promptly once I realized my mistake.

I felt pressured into paying the fee and was met with poor communication throughout the process, including a representative leaving a voicemail while on annual leave, making it impossible to resolve matters quickly.

This rigid application of their policy, combined with a lack of customer care, has left me frustrated. I want to raise awareness for other business owners who may be considering using PPL PRS or dealing with similar issues.

If anyone else has had a similar experience or advice on handling situations like this, I’d appreciate your input.

A thoroughly unpleasant experience dealing with this bunch of unaccountable scam artists . Despite many attempts to reason with them they are still charging me £50 per day for my events and still want more on top . They do not allow foe unavoidable expenses such as ticket fees and door costs ie security . They charge you for what you might sell not what you actually sell . This organisation seems to wish to destroy small venues with greed and overcharging and are more interested in lining there own pockets than helping music . They are beyond reason do not have a clear and coherent pricing structure and seem to think the performers have no responsibility just the promoters . It is a truly shameful situation that such a bullying and seemingly corrupt organisation is allowed to operate without any hinderance . £50 per day FFS

Received a letter in the post today threatening us with legal action if we continued to ignore this companies various attempts at communicating with us. When I called them and asked how they had to tried to communicate with us they said by telephone. No email and no letters despite them having our company email on their system. Turns out they hadn’t tried contacting us at all and the business address they had for us was spelt incorrectly. Imagine them forcing a £600+ license on us and not communicating it to us in advance? In 2024 in the UK it’s truly unbelievable that gangster organisations like this are permitted to operate .Absolute scammers.

Warning! Avoid registering with this company at all costs.
Once you’re in, it’s like falling into a rabbit hole—you’ll struggle to get out. We hold a different license that explicitly states we do not need a PPL PRS license to play music. Despite this, I was charged over £700 last year, even though we don’t play licensed music. I requested to be unregistered, but this year they’ve sent me another invoice for over £700 and are now threatening legal action. This company is an absolute joke.

Try to scam me every year. Once a year i have to ring them because the letter they send, has a massivly increased fee on the previous year. Sometimes 6 times higher. Even when i complain that nothing has changed with my business they want to haggle until i start losing patience. It's stressfull. The price should increase slightly like normals companies do. Why isn't the government clamping down on these criminals. It's a complete scam and the whole system needs reviewing.
Fees of any small business should not be above £600 per year.