Photo Credit: David Rowntree by Raph_PH / CC by 2.0
After a UK court rejected Blur drummer David Rowntree’s appeal in an unmatched royalties case against PRS, the musician and attorney is speaking out.
On Monday, Blur drummer David Rowntree lost his class action lawsuit against PRS for Music over the distribution of unmatched “black box” royalties. Now, Rowntree, who is also an attorney, issued a post-decision statement to Digital Music News.
Rowntree was challenging the way PRS distributes royalties that it has collected but cannot match to the correct songwriter or publisher due to missing or inaccurate information. Those funds are often called “black box” royalties; PRS calls them “unidentified royalties.”
The case hinged on Rowntree’s assertion that PRS’ system for distributing those royalties was unfair to songwriters, and that as a result, writers could potentially have been left out of £200 million in earnings.
But the Court of Appeals dismissed Rowntree’s claim, upholding the original ruling from last summer that said the case lacked a “reasonable prospect of success.” According to Lord Justice Miles in the latest judgement, the problem with Rowntree’s case was simply that he had not put forward a “realistic” alternative method to distribute that money.
Rowntree, meanwhile, remains undeterred.
“This legal action has succeeded in shining a light on the magnitude of PRS black box royalties, which the Court accepted amounted to £200 million over the period in issue. This represents a significant proportion of the total royalties collected by PRS,” Rowntree told Digital Music News.
“I think this figure is far too high, especially since I believe this money belongs overwhelmingly to individual writers rather than publishers. I would welcome the opportunity to work with the PRS to find ways to shrink the value of black box royalties for the benefit of its 160,000 songwriter members. There must be better ways for royalties to be identified and paid to the correct songwriter, especially given the pace at which technology is evolving,” he added.
“I would like to thank the songwriters who have written to me to express their support for this legal action, which at its heart has always been a call for greater transparency and fairness,” Rowntree concluded. “The outcome of the appeal is not what I had hoped for, but of course I accept the decision of the Court of Appeal that this complaint could not be dealt with as a question of competition law.”
The decision comes amid broader scrutiny over how money passes through the music licensing ecosystem. The Music Venue Trust launched a campaign earlier this year calling for greater transparency and fairness in the way PRS licensing fees are calculated for grassroots venues.
