Why Setlists Are More Than Souvenirs

Introduction

A setlist is not just a fan souvenir or a reminder of what happened on stage. For songwriters, it can be the evidence that turns a public performance into a royalty payment. When a venue, promoter, artist or collecting society cannot identify which songs were played, the money collected for live music can become hard to allocate to the correct writers and publishers. That matters most for smaller acts, support slots, grassroots venues, DJs, cover performers and working songwriters whose live-performance income may be modest per show but meaningful across a tour.

The risk is simple: live royalties depend on performance data. PRS for Music tells members that songs performed live can earn royalties and that reporting setlists helps writers get paid what they are owed; it also explains that royalties are calculated differently for small venues, popular concerts, classical concerts, festivals, busking and cover bands. [PRS for Music]zh-hk.facebook.comPRSfor MusicPRSfor Music In other words, missing setlists are not a paperwork nuisance. They are a broken link in the evidence chain between a song being played in public and its writer being paid.

How live royalties depend on setlists

Live-performance royalties are paid for the public performance of compositions: the underlying songs, not just the recordings. A performing rights organisation or collecting society licenses venues, promoters, broadcasters and other music users, then distributes money to songwriters, composers and publishers according to the data it can match to registered works. In the live sector, that data often starts with the setlist: song title, writer information, performer, date, venue and sometimes duration. PRS’s own live-performance guidance says that live music “earns royalties” for the member and that reporting setlists means “getting paid what you’re owed”; its live policy infographic describes the process as matching songs performed to the songwriters who wrote them. [PRS for Music]zh-hk.facebook.comPRSfor MusicPRSfor Music [PRS for Music]zh-hk.facebook.comPRSfor MusicPRSfor Music

The mechanics vary by society and territory, but the same principle appears internationally. BMI Live lets affiliated performing songwriters enter recent performance data so that concerts can be considered for payment, with payments made according to quarterly distributions once details are verified. [BMI.com]bmi.comBM I Live | BMI.comBM I Live | BMI.com ASCAP’s OnStage programme similarly allows writer members to submit eligible claims when they perform their own songs live at licensed venues. [ASCAP]ascap.comOpen source on ascap.com. SOCAN tells members that concert royalties may already be waiting and directs them to “Concerts with No Setlist” or to submit a Notification of Live Music Performance with the setlist attached. [SOCAN]socan.comResource CentreResource Centre

The important point is that the setlist is not merely descriptive. It is a rights-management dataset. It tells the royalty system which works were used, who wrote them, whether they were registered, and which rightsholders should share in the money collected from the event. PRS says that at popular concerts it charges venues a proportion of gross box-office receipts and then divides the money so each work receives a value based on the number of seconds performed. [PRS for Music]zh-hk.facebook.comPRSfor MusicPRSfor Music Without a reliable list of works and, where required, duration, that calculation becomes approximate, delayed or impossible.

This can also affect people who were not on stage. PRS notes that for cover bands, royalties are not paid to the performers but to the writers of the songs performed. [PRS for Music]zh-hk.facebook.comPRSfor MusicPRSfor Music That means a pub band playing a songwriter’s catalogue, a DJ playing a producer’s track, or a festival act covering another writer’s song can generate money for someone who may never know the performance happened unless the setlist is captured.

Why gig data goes missing

Setlists go missing because live music is messy in ways that streaming and radio are not. A recording platform generates digital logs automatically. A concert may involve a handwritten sheet taped to a stage, a last-minute encore, a support artist whose details are poorly advertised, a venue that is not primarily a music venue, or a performer who does not know they need to report anything.

PRS’s own member guidance makes this distinction clear. It says concert venues such as the O2 or Royal Albert Hall are required to send performance data in the form of setlists, but that non-concert venues such as pubs with occasional gigs may not be able to do so, so members need to report the performance themselves. [PRS for Music]zh-hk.facebook.comPRSfor MusicPRSfor Music The Musicians’ Union’s practical guidance for PRS members also shows how much detail is needed: the member must find the venue or festival stage, select the performed works by song title, tunecode or International Standard Musical Work Code, include covers, and identify the performing act. [Musicians' Union]musiciansunion.org.ukhow to report live performances to prs for musichow to report live performances to prs for music

Several failure points follow from that:

• The performer is not the writer. A singer may perform songs written by bandmates, collaborators or outside writers. A cover performer may not know exact writer credits.
• The writer has not registered the work properly. PRS’s reporting terms say works submitted on a setlist must be registered in its database to be considered for distribution. [PRS for Music]zh-hk.facebook.comPRSfor MusicPRSfor Music
• The deadline is missed. PRS says small UK venue claims must be submitted within 12 months, while concert-venue claims have a three-year deadline unless additional validation is arranged. [PRS for Music]zh-hk.facebook.comPRSfor MusicPRSfor Music SOCAN requires paid in-person concerts to be submitted within one year of the concert date. [SOCAN]socan.comOpen source on socan.com.
• The event is licensed but not matched. A venue or promoter may have paid a licence fee, but the collecting society may still lack a usable list of songs.
• The data is physically poor. PRS has said it manually researches setlist details and has piloted tools to turn photos of handwritten setlists into readable text, which indicates how much of this system still depends on incomplete, late or informal documentation. [The Guardian]theguardian.comSource details in endnotes.

The result is not always a simple unpaid invoice. Sometimes the money is held while the society tries to identify the performance. Sometimes it is distributed later by a rule or analogy. Sometimes a songwriter can still claim it if they find the concert in an unidentified-performance list. But the longer the gap persists, the more likely the payment becomes detached from the actual song that generated it.

The “black box” problem is a trust problem

The most visible recent dispute in the UK has centred on PRS for Music and so-called “black box” royalties: money collected for music use that cannot be readily matched to the correct rightsholders. In July 2025, the Guardian reported that PRS’s list of concerts available for distribution had grown to more than 106,000 performances dating back to 2022, with money collected but not yet allocated because of missing or insufficient setlist information. The report said nearly three-quarters related to pop gigs, many in grassroots venues, and cited a 2019 unclaimed-pot figure of £2.7 million. [The Guardian]theguardian.comSource details in endnotes.

That reporting fed into a wider legal and industry argument. Dave Rowntree of Blur brought collective proceedings against PRS over the distribution of unmatched royalties, alleging that PRS’s treatment of black box income unfairly benefited publishers over songwriters. The Competition Appeal Tribunal recorded the case in 2024 and issued its judgment on 27 August 2025. [Competition Appeal Tribunal]catribunal.org.uk16347724 mr david alexander de horne rowntree16347724 mr david alexander de horne rowntree Legal summaries of the judgment say the Tribunal refused certification and struck out the proposed collective claim, partly because the proposed class included all PRS writer members rather than only members with individual claims, and partly because the claimant had not provided a plausible method for calculating what should have been paid under the counterfactual. [Linklaters]linklaters.comno encore for rowntreeno encore for rowntree

That outcome does not make the setlist issue disappear. It shows why missing live data is difficult to litigate: if the works are unknown, proving exactly who lost how much becomes extremely hard. One legal commentary noted that the Tribunal considered unidentified works “prima facie unknowable” for the purpose of working out writer and publisher shares. [Macfarlanes]macfarlanes.comRowntree v PRS: unpacking the first collective proceedingsRowntree v PRS: unpacking the first collective proceedings That is the core risk in miniature. Once the song data is absent, even a strong intuition that someone has been underpaid may not translate into an evidentially clean claim.

PRS has also pushed back against the idea that it simply withholds money. In a 2025 Music Business Worldwide opinion piece, Crispin Hunt, President of the PRS Members’ Council, argued that live-performance royalties are paid out based on available performance data and that setlist reporting should be treated as a basic part of the live economy rather than an optional extra. [Music Business Worldwide]musicbusinessworldwide.comSource details in endnotes. The dispute, then, is not only about whether money exists. It is about whether the industry’s data pipeline is fair enough, transparent enough and practical enough for the songwriters who depend on it.

Why smaller writers feel the loss first

A stadium artist may have managers, publishers, tour accountants and production staff whose routines include setlist submission. A new songwriter playing clubs may have none of that. They may be loading their own gear, selling merch, driving home at 2am and learning about live-performance royalties months later. The payment from one gig may not be life-changing, but across a year of support slots, small venues and festival stages it can become part of a working musician’s cash flow.

PRS’s 2025 results underline why this matters. CISAC reported that more than 37,600 PRS members received royalties from live performances, and that a quarter of first-time earners received royalties because their music was performed live. It also said more than 231,000 live-performance setlists were submitted, helping more performances be recognised and paid. [CISAC]cisac.orgPRS for Music expands the reach of royalties across the industry | CISACPRS for Music expands the reach of royalties across the industry | CISAC Those figures show both sides of the story: live royalties can open the door for emerging creators, but only when the performances are visible to the system.

There is also an equity issue. Missing data does not harm everyone equally. A market-share redistribution of unmatched money tends to follow the already visible catalogue, because the system has to distribute by some available proxy. That may be administratively defensible, but it can feel unfair to a writer whose income is most likely to come from small, poorly documented shows rather than heavily monitored tours. The Guardian quoted Music Venue Trust founder Mark Davyd describing the effect as a “reverse Robin Hood” problem, because money collected from many grassroots shows can become difficult to return to the exact songwriters whose work was performed. [The Guardian]theguardian.comSource details in endnotes.

The same pattern appears in official guidance from outside the UK. SOCAN explicitly tells members to search for “Concerts with No Setlist” because royalties may already be waiting, and BMI Live testimonials emphasise that the programme is especially useful for touring artists playing medium and smaller venues. [SOCAN]socan.comResource CentreResource Centre [BMI.com]bmi.comroyalty policy manualroyalty policy manual The practical message is clear: the less infrastructure surrounds the gig, the more the songwriter or their representative may need to become the data source.

What better reporting changes

Better setlist reporting does not magically solve every royalty dispute. Songs still need correct registrations, co-writer splits, publisher details, society affiliations and territory matching. But it does solve one of the most avoidable problems: not knowing what was played.

For songwriters, better reporting changes three things. First, it makes live income more direct. Instead of relying on proxy distributions or waiting for a society to identify a concert later, the writer gives the system the information needed to match the performance to the work. Second, it makes statements more intelligible. A royalty line linked to a known venue and date is easier to audit than a broad distribution that cannot be tied back to a performance. Third, it strengthens bargaining power. If a songwriter can see which songs are earning from live use, they can make better decisions about touring, publishing administration and catalogue management.

For venues and promoters, better reporting turns licensing into a more credible exchange. They already pay for the right to use music publicly. The setlist is the proof that the fee can be routed to the creators whose work supplied the value. PRS’s live policy infographic says a venue, promoter or performer can send the setlist and that it should include all songs performed, writer names, song titles and duration. [PRS for Music]zh-hk.facebook.comPRSfor MusicPRSfor Music That is not a glamorous reform, but it is a practical one: embed setlist capture into settlement paperwork, promoter agreements, festival advance forms and artist post-show routines.

For collecting societies, better reporting is about trust as much as efficiency. PRS says it continues to invest in improved tracking and reporting tools, and CISAC connects increased setlist submission with more performances being recognised and paid. [CISAC]cisac.orgPRS for Music expands the reach of royalties across the industry | CISACPRS for Music expands the reach of royalties across the industry | CISAC But the controversy around unidentified concerts shows that creators also want clearer visibility over what is missing, how long it remains claimable, what happens after deadlines pass and how unmatched money is ultimately distributed.

The useful habit: treat every setlist as payment data

The simplest cultural shift is to stop treating setlists as informal scraps of stagecraft. They are payment data. A songwriter who performs live should register works before touring, keep a dated record of every show, note the venue and stage, include covers where the society requires them, and submit within the relevant deadline. PRS encourages members to report all live performances as soon as possible and says eligibility depends on membership at the time of the performance, timely reporting and the music having been played live. [PRS for Music]zh-hk.facebook.comPRSfor MusicPRSfor Music BMI requires performance day and time, setlist and venue information, and says payments depend on verification and distribution schedules. [BMI.com]bmi.comBM I Live | BMI.comBM I Live | BMI.com SOCAN asks for a setlist and supporting proof such as a ticket stub, poster, digital asset or promoter agreement for paid concerts. [SOCAN]socan.comOpen source on socan.com.

A practical live-music routine looks less like a legal process than a tour habit:

That habit matters because the live economy is increasingly important for creators, while its data remains uneven. PRS reported strong live growth in 2025, with live royalties topping £100 million and more than 231,000 setlists collected according to public reporting around its results. [Facebook]facebook.comOpen source on facebook.com. The more money flows through live performance, the more costly missing setlists become. A missing setlist is not just a lost memory of the night. It can be the difference between a song being heard and a songwriter being paid.

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Endnotes

1. Source: bmi.com
   Title: BM I Live | BMI.com
   Link: https://www.bmi.com/special/bmi_live

2. Source: ascap.com
   Link: https://www.ascap.com/music-creators/ascap-onstage

3. Source: socan.com
   Title: Resource Centre
   Link: https://www.socan.com/resource-centre/

4. Source: linklaters.com
   Title: no encore for rowntree
   Link: https://www.linklaters.com/en/insights/blogs/linkingcollectiveredress/2025/september/no-encore-for-rowntree

5. Source: macfarlanes.com
   Title: Rowntree v PRS: unpacking the first collective proceedings
   Link: https://www.macfarlanes.com/insights/102lo5x/rowntree-v-prs-unpacking-the-first-collective-proceedings-strike-out-ruling

6. Source: cisac.org
   Title: PRS for Music expands the reach of royalties across the industry | CISAC
   Link: https://www.cisac.org/Newsroom/society-news/prs-music-expands-reach-royalties-across-industry

7. Source: facebook.com
   Link: https://www.facebook.com/PRSforMusic/posts/more-music-more-creators-more-paid-%EF%B8%8F-107-billion-paid-%EF%B8%8F-over-86000-prs-members-p/1495330898629261/

8. Source: lindacooganb.medium.com
   Link: https://lindacooganb.medium.com/the-royalty-maze-why-so-many-artists-still-dont-understand-how-music-money-works-4d241c24e557

9. Source: socan.com
   Link: https://www.socan.com/wp-content/themes/socan/assets/files/Get-Set-Get-Paid-Concerts-with-no-set-list-guide.pdf

10. Source: bmi.com
    Title: royalty policy manual
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11. Source: facebook.com
    Link: https://www.facebook.com/PRSforMusic/posts/our-ceo-andrea-czapary-martin-reflecting-on-live-royalties-and-the-importance-of/1504353401060344/

12. Source: facebook.com
    Title: in the latest issue of music business worldwide mbw prs members council presiden
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18. Source: ascap.com
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19. Source: ascap.com
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    Title: PRS for Music Reporting live performances | PRS for Music
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21. Source: prsformusic.com
    Title: PRS for Music Live Policy Infographic
    Link: https://www.prsformusic.com/-/media/images/2025-livelihood-campaign/live-policy-infographic–v6-511.ashx
    Source snippet

    PRS for MusicLive Policy InfographicNovember 5, 2025 — A venue, promoter or performer can send us the setlist. It must list all songs per...

    Published: November 5, 2025

22. Source: prsformusic.com
    Title: how to maximise your prs membership
    Link: https://www.prsformusic.com/m-magazine/how-to/how-to-maximise-your-prs-membership

23. Source: musiciansunion.org.uk
    Title: how to report live performances to prs for music
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24. Source: prsformusic.com
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25. Source: theguardian.com
    Link: https://www.theguardian.com/business/2025/jul/04/songwriters-royalties-uk-gigs-prs-for-music

26. Source: catribunal.org.uk
    Title: 16347724 mr david alexander de horne rowntree
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27. Source: musicbusinessworldwide.com
    Link: https://www.musicbusinessworldwide.com/setlist-reporting-isnt-an-optional-extra-its-a-fundamental-part-of-the-live-music-economy/

28. Source: aristake.com
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    Title: performing right society limited
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30. Source: prsformusic.com
    Title: performing right society limited
    Link: https://www.prsformusic.com/-/media/files/prs-for-music/membership/membership-policies/prs-distribution-policy/full-document–prs-distribution-policy.pdf

31. Source: prsformusic.com
    Link: https://www.prsformusic.com/-/media/files/prs-for-music/membership/membership-policies/overseas-revenue-prs-dist-policy

32. Source: prsformusic.com
    Link: https://www.prsformusic.com/royalties/claim-unpaid-royalties

33. Source: prsformusic.com
    Link: https://www.prsformusic.com/royalties/report-live-performances/self-administering-public-performances

34. Source: prsformusic.com
    Link: https://www.prsformusic.com/royalties/dj-royalties

35. Source: instagram.com
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37. Source: musicbusinessworldwide.com
    Link: https://www.musicbusinessworldwide.com/a-modern-collecting-society-needs-the-pace-and-resilience-of-a-modern-digital-service/

38. Source: guitargirlmag.com
    Title: socan muzooka collaborate streamline live show reporting artists
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39. Source: brickcourt.co.uk
    Title: mpetition appeal tribunal strikes out blur drummers cpo claim
    Link: https://www.brickcourt.co.uk/news/detail/competition-appeal-tribunal-strikes-out-blur-drummers-cpo-claim

40. Source: muzooka.com
    Title: SOCA N Setlist Reporting
    Link: https://www.muzooka.com/performing-rights-organization/socan

Additional References

1. Source: youtube.com
   Title: Performance Rights Organizations and Live Music Royalties
   Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vV9V0j7sX8c
   Source snippet

   Understanding Live Performance Royalties and Setlists...

2. Source: youtube.com
   Title: Music Royalties: The Importance of Performance Reporting
   Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wX-y0M5m29s
   Source snippet

   Getting Paid for Live Gigs as a Songwriter...

3. Source: reddit.com
   Link: https://www.reddit.com/r/musicindustry/comments/1oyi71f/are_you_collecting_all_the_royalties_youre_owed/

4. Source: scribd.com
   Link: https://www.scribd.com/document/140046243/BMI-Royalty-Information

5. Source: linkedin.com
   Link: https://www.linkedin.com/posts/georgeholliday_most-brands-i-talk-to-think-bespoke-music-activity-7449385570419564544-cc64

6. Source: linkedin.com
   Link: https://www.linkedin.com/posts/prs-for-music_the-story-of-a-setlist-activity-7392163184037556224-xJvg

7. Source: instagram.com
   Link: https://www.instagram.com/p/DQti4BaiIHp/

8. Source: anotemusic.com
   Link: https://www.anotemusic.com/news/articles/how-music-royalties-distribution-works

9. Source: reddit.com
   Link: https://www.reddit.com/r/musicians/comments/1cv2n54/if_you_play_original_music_live_you_should_be/

10. Source: instagram.com
    Link: https://www.instagram.com/reel/CmLwNU_I8UN/