Dear PCAM Member,
This is the latest in a series of Newsletters that we publish five times a year, following meetings of the PCAM Committee. Each Newsletter contains a brief report from the recent Committee meeting, plus other current news and views and case studies from the PCAM Helpdesk.
We would like to receive more contributions to the Newsletter from PCAM members. If you want to write something for inclusion or send us a link to something interesting you have read or seen, please contact PCAM Administrator Bob Fromer on: [email protected].
Best regards,
The PCAM Committee
CONTENTS
— Message from the Chair
— PCAM “Back to Basics” Seminar Set for 11 February
— Feature Story 1: PCAM at Parliamentary Committee on AI
— PCAM Extends Educational Functions
— Help PCAM get a place at SXSW in 2026
— PCAM Mentoring Programme to run again in 2026
— Feature Story 2: When Can Composers Receive the Publisher’s Share?
— PCAM Q&As Volume 5 Now Available
— Notes from the PCAM Committee Meeting: 18 November 2025
— Music Industry Assistant
— International Sound Engineer Seeks Opportunity in the UK
— PCAM Committee Meeting Dates in 2026
— Case Studies from the PCAM Helpdesk
— PCAM Social Media
MESSAGE FROM THE CHAIR
Dear PCAM Members,
As we head towards the end of the year, I wanted to share a quick update along with some breaking news.
We’re keeping a close eye on the recently-announced consolidation that’s happening across the Omnicom group. Shifts like this effect commissioning patterns, volumes of briefs, budgets, and, importantly, who actually controls music decisions. If you work with agencies such as MullenLowe, DDB, or FCB, you may find work moving across to TBWA, McCann, or BBDO. It’s worth checking in with your contacts and making sure you stay visible so you don’t miss out as things settle into their new shape. At a concerning time for our clients, PCAM wishes everyone working at the affected agencies the very best of luck through the changes.
Despite this alarming news, it’s been encouraging to hear from so many members recently who’ve had a busy couple of months. Those with a more diverse mix of work across advertising, entertainment, and events seem to be feeling the benefit. It’s a reminder that the applied music world continues to evolve, and that flexibility and breadth can bring real resilience.
Throughout 2025, PCAM has never been busier. A huge part of what we do centres on sharing knowledge, and throughout the year we’ve put real energy into seminars, mentorship, new and updated resources, and general outreach. Our focus is always on clear, practical guidance on areas such as rights, revenue, industry structures, career pathways, and sustainable creative practice — all the things that help people navigate the industry with confidence.
We continue to meet talented people entering the field with loads of enthusiasm but very little access to transparent, trustworthy information. Giving them that support is part of how we protect our industry and help ensure fair, sustainable careers for everyone.
The PCAM Committee has also been deeply involved in some standout projects this year, including our mentorship scheme, which was a real success and will return in 2026. It’s been brilliant to see the impact it’s had on both mentors and mentees, and it’s exactly the kind of initiative we want to keep building on.
A huge thanks to the Committee, who continue to give their time freely, and to Bob Fromer and Michelle Murchan for their incredible efforts this year. PCAM runs on collective passion, and I’m genuinely grateful to everyone who’s helped push things forward.
I also want to thank PRS for their support throughout 2025, in particular David Newton and Kenny Barber, as well as Tilda Landehag from Lewisham Music. Their collaboration has not only strengthened the support we’re able to offer our members but has genuinely helped create new careers and guide countless others along the way. It’s partnerships like these that make such a difference on the ground.
Looking ahead, 2026 will bring more events, gatherings and collaborative projects, including work to strengthen our relationships with other music bodies. There’s a lot of positive momentum and we’re excited to keep it moving.
Wishing everyone a strong end to the year and a prosperous 2026 — and as ever, we’re with you throughout.
Best regards,
Paul Reynolds
PCAM Chair
MARK THE DATE: PCAM “BACK TO BASICS” SEMINAR SET FOR 11 FEBRUARY
The next PCAM/PRS Seminar will be held on the evening of Wednesday 11 February at PRS HQ near London Bridge: Goldings House, 2 Hays Lane, London, SE1 2HB.
The event will focus on two areas: a “Back to Basics” review of music administration (copyright, contracts, publishing, financial and legal issues, etc), and “How to Diversify Your Practice”, to encourage composers to sustain their incomes by working in different areas of applied music.
The Seminar, which will be open from 5.30 pm and start around 6.00 pm, will feature speakers and an expert panel, and will finish with a networking session.
As well as inviting our own members, we will publicise the Seminar to participants in the current PRS/Lewisham Music Outreach Project and to SCOREcast members.
Attendance is free, but please RSVP to [email protected].
Feature Story 1: PCAM at Parliamentary Committee on AI
PCAM Committee Member for Interactive and AI Music Chris Green was recently invited to attend a meeting with “responsible AI firms” held by the All-Party Parliamentary Group for Intellectual Property, which took place at the Houses of Parliament on Wednesday 26 November.
Recent discussions between the Government, AI firms, and rights owners in relation to policy around AI and copyright have missed the opportunity to involve AI developers and service providers who have committed to the responsible use of licensed content. The Secretaries of State involved in these discussions have also asked how the UK can differentiate itself in the AI global race.
The meeting was designed to hear from those responsible AI developers and understand their points of view so they could be shared with the Government, subject to agreement by attendees.
During the meeting, Chris spoke as an advocate for AI models that are owned by rights holders and musicians, not multinational private companies. This is a moment, Chris said, to build ethical and responsible bottom-up business models and practices that empower musicians, not exploit them. The idea is to create an industry where the rights holders control their own rights and means of production, moving power away from those who solely use capital to control the creative market.
The main AI models available at the moment use very large “big-data” sets for training, which has been proven to be inefficient — and it is also very hard to track the ownership of the original data. Recent academic research, Chris argued, supports the idea that “small-data” sets would be the more efficient and ethical way to train new AI models, resulting in less impact to the environment and much easier tracing of original ownership. Also, the foundational technology behind AI training and models is actually mostly academic open source code, available under MIT licenses. This means that anyone with the knowledge can theoretically use their own data to train and create models, so it would be better to create open source tools for all creatives to use, and create a decentralised AI industry controlled by individual creators rather than multi-billion dollar companies.
The All-Party Group Chair, Sir John Whittingdale, and Vice-Chair Lord Clement-Jones, said they were grateful for this contribution. As a follow-up, Sir John raised the discussions held at the meeting in a topical question for the Department for Culture, Media and Sport on the floor of the House of Commons, and the Secretary of State, Lisa Nandy, has agreed to meet with the group in the new year.
We will keep you updated on the future of these meetings, and on ethical AI music developments.
PCAM EXTENDS EDUCATIONAL Functions
At the recent PCAM Committee meeting, the subject of PCAM’s role and function was discussed, based an observation made by long-standing Committee member Chris Smith that the organisation has recently developed a very clear focus on education.
This focus has manifested itself in a number of different areas:
- The PCAM Mentorship Programme, initiated and overseen by Becky Wixon, aimed at female and non-binary composers wishing to enter the media music profession. The first iteration of this has recently ended and was an outstanding success. A second programme is being planned for 2026, when those applicants who did not make it onto the first one (nearly 90!) will be given the first opportunity to apply. The second programme will be expanded from the original 10 places, thanks to a number of new mentors volunteering to provide their services.
- A Masterclass programme, run in conjunction with PRS for Music and the music charity Lewisham Music, where participants ranging from 18 to 30 years old have been introduced to media music writing as a potential career. As with the Mentoring Programme, this has proved to be a huge success, opening up opportunities and raising awareness of the profession for a group of extremely talented young people who might not have considered that media music composing was an area that was available to them.
- The PCAM Podcasts. The last round of podcasts built upon the initiative that began some years ago, covering technical and practical subjects, aimed again at young or less experienced composers starting out in careers in media music. A third series of podcasts is currently in the early stages of development and will be rolled out over the course of next year.
In addition to these activities, the PCAM Helpline is still a much-used source of advice on subjects including budgeting, licensing, contracts, and more, generously and expertly run by Tony Satchell.
Finally, there is the much hoped-for and long planned PCAM Education Initiative, which is still gestating and looking for partner financing, which ultimately hopes to roll out freely available short films with technical and practical information and advice essential to becoming a successful media composer. This is the largest of all PCAM’s initiatives in its ambition and scope, and we are hoping to get it off the drawing board and into production without too much further delay.
All of these activities demonstrate PCAM’s commitment to education within the media music profession, and mark an interesting shift in focus that we will be seeking to define over the coming months as we actively look for partners and funding to develop this side of our remit.
The PCAM Committee firmly believes that the changing nature of the media music profession has resulted in many composers running their own small businesses without representation, and frequently without a full grasp of all the technical, business, and legal elements involved to ensure that they obtain proper remuneration, terms, and conditions.
We believe that one of PCAM’s most important roles is to provide such knowledge, both to ensure that those working in the industry are properly equipped to manage their careers, and to underpin the wider professional knowledge base that will ensure the health of the entire profession in the future.
HELP PCAM GET A PLACE at SXSW LONDON in 2026
PCAM has applied to present a panel discussion at the 2026 SXSW Festival in Shoreditch titled “What They Don’t Teach You: Applied Music Industry Fundamentals”.
Talented composers and producers enter music-for-media with passion but often lack transparent guidance on how the industry actually works. The PCAM panel will bring together practitioners and commissioners to demystify the business side of applied music — from navigating rights and revenue streams to understanding sustainable career pathways in TV, film, advertising, and gaming. PCAM Committee members and industry professionals will share the practical knowledge that’s rarely taught: how deals are structured, where money comes from, and what emerging creators need to know to build informed, sustainable careers in this complex ecosystem.
Sessions, panels and presentations at SXSW are determined by vote, and you can help ensure that the PCAM panel discussion makes it onto next year’s programme, by voting on this link: Voting link . You must cast your vote by 23 December.
SXSW London, launched in June 2025 with 20,501 attendees, brought global visionaries together across 34 venues for six days of connection and discovery. From agentic AI to biotech breakthroughs, space tech to storytelling, the programme stretched across 500+ sessions, 100+ screenings, and 600 live performances.
A “cultural catalyst and creative collision”, SXSW London is where film, music and technology converge to shape what’s next, and SXSW 2026 should be even bigger and better than the inaugural edition in 2025.
SXSW London is the European edition of SXSW (South by Southwest), the famous cross-media festival originally based in Austin, Texas. Its ambition is to combine multiple creative and tech disciplines — music, film/screen, technology/innovation, arts and design, and industry conference — under one roof.
As with the Austin version, London SXSW is conceived as more than just a festival: it’s a platform for global networking, creative discovery, industry collaboration, and cultural exchange.
But what SXSW London didn’t seem to offer in 2025 was any sessions or information on the nuts and bolts of music administration, and that’s what PCAM hopes to bring to the festival in 2026.
PCAM Mentoring Programme to run again in 2026
Following the success of the first PCAM Mentoring Programme in 2025, designed to open more doors for women and gender-expansive composers in the media music industry, we will run the programme again in 2026.
Close to 100 people applied for the programme when it was announced on International Women’s Day (8 March) this year, but the number of available mentors meant that only 10 could be chosen.
We will be giving last year’s unsuccessful applicants the first chance to gain a place on the programme in 2026, and with more mentors now having volunteered, more places should be available.
The programme ran across roughly six months this year, and consisted of six hours of sessions offered by mentors to mentees, with subject matter based on what mentees felt they most needed.
One mentee has just won the Best New Composer Award at the Kinsale Shark Music Awards, and others have had comparable successes in terms of commissions, etc. Above all, mentees have reported a great boost to confidence.
FEATURE STORY 2: WHEN CAN COMPOSERS RECEIVE The PUBLISHER SHARE?
At PCAM, we have recently been looking at a little-known rule that could significantly benefit composers when they have works represented by a publisher who doesn’t register the work. Here is a breakdown of the rule and some advice on how best to navigate the situation.
Understanding the PRS Three-Year Reversion Rule for Unregistered Works
When you write music for advertising, branded content, or production companies, the publisher is normally responsible for registering the work with PRS so that both the writer share and the publisher share can be paid correctly. However, if the publisher does not register the work within three years of its first use, PRS treats the unclaimed publisher share differently and this can benefit the composer.
What the “Three-Year Reversion Rule” Means
If a piece of music has been used (broadcast, used online, etc) and:
- The writer is a PRS member, but
- The publisher has never registered the work, and
- Three years pass from the date of the first royalty distribution period
Then the publisher share reverts to the writer.
In other words, after three years, the publisher loses the right to claim their share of the royalties for the period in which the work was unregistered, and those royalties become payable to the writer instead. This applies only to the unregistered period. The publisher may still register the work going forward, but they cannot reclaim historic earnings older than three years.
Why This Rule Exists
PRS distributes royalties based on registered data. If no publisher registration exists, PRS cannot allocate the publisher share and that share sits unclaimed. After three years, PRS reallocates it so that earnings aren’t permanently locked or redistributed elsewhere. To protect creators, PRS allocates those unclaimed shares to the writer, not to a general pool. This is a writer-friendly protection built into the distribution system.
However, the distribution can only be made if your works are identified as created by you! (See below for steps on what to do).
What This Means for Composers in Practice
If a publisher fails to register a commissioned track, you (the composer) can receive both the writer share and the publisher share for the unregistered period — but only once the three-year reversion period has passed.
That means:
- If the work went live in 2022
- And the publisher never registered it
- Then from 2025 onwards, the historic publisher share belonging to 2022 usage comes to you, not the publisher.
This applies to any past period where the publisher failed to register a work.
What Happens if the Publisher Registers Late (After Three Years)?
The publisher can register at any point, but:
- Registration does not restore their right to claim past periods older than three years.
- They only regain their publisher share for new future earnings.
- Historic publisher income that already reverted to the writer stays with the writer.
This is a key point: late registration does not override the reversion.
Who Does This Typically Affect?
Issues with the three-year reversion rule rarely arise with established, well-resourced publishers, particularly those attached to major UK broadcasters such as the BBC, Sky, ITV, and other reputable independent music publishers, as their registration processes are typically accurate and timely.
The situations where reversion becomes relevant tend to involve smaller production companies or brands that have set up in-house publishing entities which may be outdated, inconsistently maintained, or not fully operational. In these cases, works can go unregistered without the composer’s knowledge, meaning the publisher share could later revert to the writer once the three-year period has passed.
What Should a Composer Do (Simple Steps)?
- Start the relationship well with the commissioning party. Know who the publisher is and who to contact if there are issues. This will mitigate issues in the future and help you build a better commercial relationship.
- If you didn’t do Step 1, you can register the work yourself if the publisher hasn’t. Check the PRS Unregistered/Unclaimed Works database (you should check this periodically anyway!).
- Tell PRS that the publisher has not registered the work.
- PRS will track the timeline and apply reversion automatically after three years.
- You should then receive the publisher share for those past periods.
You do not need to wait three years to register. The reversion clock starts based on usage and distribution, not on writer registration.
In all, this could be a highly valuable process if your works have been exploited a lot and they have remained unclaimed.
For further advice and details, we recommend contacting PRS Member Services, who will be able to handle your specific query.
PCAM Q&As VOLUME 5 NOW AVAILABLE
Over the past few years, an edited selection of questions sent to the PCAM Helpdesk, and the answers provided by PCAM Committee member Tony Satchell, who runs the Helpdesk, have been published annually on the PCAM website.
The latest selection of Helpdesk Q&As from 2024 and early 2025, called Helpdesk Volume 5, is now available on the website here: https://www.pcam.co.uk/pcam-helpdesk-faqs. You can also find Volumes 1-4 on this page.
Because PCAM members often run into similar kinds of problems, and ask the Helpdesk similar kinds of questions, perusing these questions and answers can often be helpful, especially for newer members.
NOTES FROM THE PCAM COMMITTEE MEETING: 18 NOVEMBER 2025
The PCAM Committee’s most recent get-together was an in-person meeting on 18 November in London.
Those present in person were Paul Reynolds (Chair), Chris Smith, Chris Green, Simon Surtees, Jonathan Watts, and Bob Fromer.
Those who attended remotely were Tony Satchell, Becky Wixon, Bankey Ojo, and Michelle Murchan.
Apologies were received from Simon Elms.
Guests were Angela Allen and Sam Heath (Sounds Like These) and James Morrell (freelance composer).
Some of the discussions and decisions from the meeting – those that aren’t already covered earlier in this Newsletter — are below:
PCAM website outage and hack.
The PCAM website went down, for the second time in a month, on the day of the PCAM Committee meeting on 18 November – but this was a result of a major systems failure that affected websites across the globe, and the site was soon back online.
In October, however, the PCAM website was the victim of a minor hack, apparently affecting only one page – but it still took several days and over £1000 in costs to restore the site, as well as requiring PCAM members to re-set their passwords. We have now added more protection against this happening again — but of course nothing can be guaranteed!
More industry links coming on PCAM website.
The Links page on the PCAM website (https://www.pcam.co.uk/links/) currently has only five links on it to other important industry organisations – but we are about to add a great many more, hopefully by early in the new year.
PRS/PCAM/Lewisham Music sessions.
Paul Reynolds told the meeting that PRS and Lewisham Music are planning at least two more educational outreach sessions for Lewisham Music members in 2026, on “Writing for TV Series” and “Writing for Films”. Meanwhile, half-day educational events staged by PCAM at Lewisham Music will begin in April 2026. These sessions will focus on the basics of music administration, and will probably be three-hour events with a panel that PCAM will provide.
Lewisham Music is an award-winning youth charity whose objects include advancing education (particularly in music), advancing the arts and culture, and supporting social welfare. Its work includes music tuition, community-based music activities, youth-focused programmes, bursaries, support for disadvantaged young people, and more.
Podcast recordings.
So far, one episode in the PCAM Podcast series has been recorded, on Building a Music Department, and this should be ready for release early in the new year.
Recordings for the following podcasts should happen soon:
- Wellbeing in the Applied Music Industry
- Fairness in the Applied Music Industry
- AI Technology from a Creator Point of View
- It’s a Hard Knock Life: the rough and tumble of operating in a challenging marketplace, and how flexibility and resilience can help chart your course.
BARB monitoring of streaming services.
Paul Reynolds has been able to confirm that BARB monitoring has produced information on ads run on streaming services. Until now, no one has been paid for this because it was thought the information didn’t exist. The PRS will be looking into this, and there should be more news soon.
MU-IPA agreement on fees.
Tony Satchell told the meeting that there is still no final agreement between the MU and the IPA on musicians’ fees, though the IPA has recently put a counter-offer to the Union. When there is a resolution, we will let members know.
MUSIC INDUSTRY ASSISTANT
With extensive experience across the music and creative industries, I’ve worked with organisations including BASCA/Ivors, BBC, Arts Council England, TV production companies, and numerous media composers. This background gives me deep insight into the unique needs of creative professionals.
I’d love to discuss how I can support your projects and help streamline your workflow.
Thanks, Michelle
International SOUND ENGINEER SEEKS OPPORTUNITY IN UK
My son is currently studying sound engineering at university in Madrid and is eager to gain hands-on experience by joining a band during its national or European tour. He is very enthusiastic about further developing his skills and consolidating his academic knowledge in a real-world setting. If there is any opportunity for him to join a crew or support team, it would be an invaluable step in his training.
He currently plays the guitar and has some experience with the saxophone. He holds a Cambridge C1 certificate, though his English is nearly at a native level. He spent a year studying in Bath, UK, which greatly enhanced his language skills and exposure to the music scene. He is an empathetic, open-minded young man who is passionate and eager to immerse himself in the world of music.
I would greatly appreciate it if you could help me get in touch with someone who might be able to guide or nurture his talent.
Thank you very much for your attention.Sincerely,
Jesús Martínez martinezlopezjesus1969@gmail.
PCAM Committee meeting dates in 2026
PCAM meeting dates in 2026 will be:
- Tuesday 10 February (in-person)
- Tuesday 21 April (remote)
- Tuesday 16 June (in-person plus Summer Social)
- Tuesday 8 September (remote)
- Tuesday 10 November (in-person)
Any PCAM member interested in attending any PCAM Committee meeting should contact PCAM Administrator Bob Fromer ([email protected]).
CASE STUDIES FROM THE PCAM HELPDESK
Below are two question-and-answer exchanges from the PCAM Helpdesk (the questions are in black type and the Helpdesk answers from Helpdesk guru Tony Satchell are in blue).
Q: I hope you can help.
I’m a music producer and sound designer based in the UK and I’ve been commissioned to work on a re-recording of Debussy’s Clair De Lune for a brand film for TV in India. How do I go about checking if the copyright has expired and/or if are there any clearances or licensing permissions I need to make?
A: Debussy died in 1918, so all his works are now in the public domain. As long as you don’t copy anyone else’s arrangement (which would therefore have a copyright element) you can arrange and register your copyright arrangement with PRS.
When we re-arrange a public domain work, we invariably put in some little discreet motif to ensure that there is no chance of infringing any existing arrangements.
I hope this helps.
A Cautionary Tale….
Q: A couple of years ago I began working on a feature film with a long-time collaborator and friend. He was the composer, and I was the producer. It was a pretty terrible deal, but I did it anyway on the basis that we would continue working together in good faith (how naive I was). I’ve known him personally since we were teenagers and we’ve played in bands together etc. So it seemed like a joint venture that was fun and exciting. We’d done a couple of shorts previously and also another feature.
He hired me for two weeks, but it ended up taking over a month of 16-hour days to reach his unrealistic deadline that he’d agreed with the film’s producer. I got paid an absolute pittance, but he also mentioned that he wanted to split everything 50/50 (which I said was too much as I wasn’t actually the “composer”, although those lines became quite blurred as I contributed a lot creatively and also made a couple of the cues myself). I also helped sell in his cues by remaking his midi files into produced-sounding scores before production began in earnest.
After the film was finished, we met and agreed splits. I agreed to a general 20/80 split, with me getting more on the ones I’d made more of. I’d never signed anything, despite asking for contracts at the start (oops). So the only real agreement I have is his shared Excel spreadsheet of our splits.
Now I find that he’s been receiving royalties via PRS, as he’s put himself in there at 100% for every cue. He wants to pay me out of that. I said there was no need as PRS would pay us based on our percentages, but only later realised I’d never been credited in any way officially via PRS.
Can you advise on how to proceed? It seems he sees it as a “personal favour” that he pays me some of his royalties. We are quibbling over a very small sum currently, although the film is now playing on Sky, so I imagine the next payment will be larger. But most importantly for me is the principle. I contributed far more than I’d been asked to do and have not been credited at all.
I know I’ve been foolish and naive in this arrangement, but was wondering if you could offer some advice and let me know if I’m being unreasonable by expecting my split to be entered in via PRS.
A: I think, as you know, that you have answered your own question and hopefully you won’t make the same mistake ever again, as there really is no use crying over spilt milk! You’re obviously entitled to your share of royalties but with nothing in writing you are unfortunately left to the mercy of your so-called friend!
Before doing any job of work you must make sure you have a solid agreement in writing as to exactly what you’re going to do, for how much, and on what terms — particularly if it’s for a friend!
I would suggest you ask your “friend” to re-register the PRS percentages as a goodwill gesture just to keep you happy, as you have definitely gone way beyond the call of duty. There is nothing else you can do other than sue him, but then again you have no proof of an agreement and it would be his word against yours.
At the beginning of my career a top showbiz lawyer said to me, “Never litigate on emotional grounds however right you are, only litigate on provable facts”. Wise words indeed!
I’m sorry you’ve had to suffer this very painful lesson, but hopefully in future you’ll have more faith in your talents and won’t let anyone take advantage of you like that again.
PCAM SOCIAL MEDIA
For all the latest news on PCAM seminars and workshops, our new series of podcasts, plus industry-wide events and initiatives, be sure to follow PCAM on our socials.
Our two series of podcasts are now available on SoundCloud.