Performance Royalty Distribution In The Grassroots Sector: UK Music Venue Trust & Audoo Share Initial Research

Back in June, the UK’s Music Venue Trust (MVT) and Audoo, a company that has developed performance royalty reporting technology, announced a partnership in order to assess whether current royalty distribution methodologies accurately reflect the music being played in grassroots music venues.

For a long time, small venues run independently not just in the UK have been lamenting that public performance royalties collected from them are not being distributed based on accurate data.

In the UK, performing rights organization PRS For Music assumes that all music played inside clubs and other grassroots music venues is repertoire registered with PRS.

This would imply that PRS has licensed all music that’s being performed out there at all times, which is, at best, an improbable assumption, and one MVT has been challenging for year.

For good reasons, as the initial research by MVT, utilizing audio recognition technology from Audoo, confirms. Across a two-month period during August and September they found that only 21% of measured live performance audio could be matched with known songs, i.e. songs registered with PRS For Music.

Across 623 hours of live performance audio, Audoo’s Audio Meters identified 134 hours (21%) as matching known songs or works. MVT says this is broadly consistent with its longstanding estimate that registered repertoire accounts for between 20% and 34% of music performed in grassroots venues. Unmatched audio can also include speech between songs and other unidentified material.

MVT says the findings raise questions about how accurately existing music licensing models reflect the repertoire being performed in grassroots venues and highlight the potential for technology to improve royalty distribution to songwriters.

While the pilot does not establish the precise proportion of unregistered music, its findings suggest that more detailed measurement could help inform future licensing and royalty distribution arrangements.

MVT and Audoo have therefore announced a new three-month study into music performed in grassroots venues to gather more conclusive data.

The new study will involve over 100 grassroots venues across the UK between October and December 2026. Audoo’s Audio Meter technology takes a feed from a venue’s mixing desk, identifying known songs performed live or played as recorded music without requiring additional paperwork or setlist submissions.

During the pilot, the technology recognised 2,238 live performances, including 23 tribute-band sets featuring more than 380 songs. These included all 13 tracks of My Chemical Romance’s The Black Parade performed in album order and Britney Spears songs performed as heavy metal. It also identified songwriters performing their own material, including 13 songs from the catalogues of James Walsh of Starsailor and Ben Ottewell of Gomez.

The pilot also highlighted the diversity of grassroots music programming. In September alone, 1,190 different songs were recognised during live performances, with 87% heard only once. Recorded music was similarly varied, with 10,943 tracks by 6,248 artists identified. The repertoire differs markedly from radio and major-concert consumption, which are commonly used as proxies for royalty distribution. No single artist was heard in more than 16 of the 64 venues providing data in September.

MVT and Audoo plan to publish the findings of the new study in January 2027, providing new evidence to inform discussions about grassroots venue licensing and royalty distribution.

‘Current Economic Models For Grassroots Live Music Are Not Working’ Finds Music Venue Trust Annual Report

Comments:

Mark Davyd, CEO of Music Venue Trust, said: “For years, we’ve challenged the assumption that all music performed in grassroots venues is registered repertoire. These initial findings raise important questions about how accurately the current licensing system reflects what’s actually being played. This study is an opportunity to move beyond estimates and assumptions and develop an evidence-based approach that works fairly for venues and songwriters alike.”

Steve Robbins, CTO of Audoo, said: “Songwriters should be paid when their music is performed, but that depends on knowing what has actually been played. Our technology can provide detailed usage data without requiring venues to submit setlists. This larger study will give us a more comprehensive picture that we hope will benefit venues, songwriters and collecting societies alike.”

Gareth Kelly, Rights Management, Music Venue Trust, said: “This has been a long time coming. Better data about the music performed in grassroots venues is essential to meaningful discussions about licensing arrangements and ensuring songwriters receive the royalties they’re entitled to.”

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