How to check your PPL PRS music licence invoice for errors

TheMusicLicence is built from so many inputs that errors are common — and they almost never resolve in your favour on their own. Here’s a practical checklist you can run against your own invoice in a few minutes.

1. Check the audible area

Compare the m² recorded on the invoice against the space where music is genuinely audible to customers today. Storerooms, offices, corridors and staff-only areas are often wrongly included. Because area is banded, one band too high can cost £100+ a year on the PRS side alone.

2. Check the usage type

Make sure background music isn’t being billed under a live-entertainment or specially-featured-entertainment (DJ/disco) tariff. That misclassification is common and expensive.

3. Check for a carried-forward higher rate

If you were unlicensed before, the first year carries a higher rate (PRS standard + 50%, plus a PPL surcharge). It should revert to the standard rate after year one — if you can still see a standard-plus-50% charge in year two or beyond, that’s a provable overcharge.

4. Check the site and count details

Look for sites that have closed, downsized or been refitted but are still billed at the old basis, duplicate sites across accounts, and incorrect staff, seating or capacity figures.

5. Check the tariff matches your business

Confirm the tariff on the invoice actually fits your setting — for example, a car-dealership showroom should sit under the retail tariffs, not a motor-vehicle tariff.

6. Compare across your estate

If you run multiple sites, line the invoices up side by side. The same small error repeated across ten or fifteen sites is where the biggest recoveries hide.

Spotted something that looks off — or want a professional pair of eyes? Send us your invoices and we’ll check them line by line against the official tariffs, for free. If there’s a correctable error we’ll find it; if your invoice is already accurate, we’ll tell you that, and there’s nothing to pay.

This guide is general information, not legal advice, and MLC is an independent consultancy — not affiliated with PPL PRS Ltd, PRS for Music or PPL.