February 26, 2018

ICE is the organisation established by PRS for Music, GEMA (the German CMO) and STIM (the Swedish CMO) to encourage collaboration between CMOs, music publishers and digital service providers to ensure composers and songwriters are compensated accurately and fairly for the use of their works.

PRS for Music has announced that ICE has reached an agreement with Facebook for their first multi-territorial music licence with an online licensing and processing hub. The licence covers Facebook, Instagram, Oculus and Messenger and provides online music licensing for over 290,000 rights holders, across 160 territories.

PRS for Music says that the deal signifies Facebook’s commitment in working with the industry to ensure music rights holders are accurately compensated for the use of their works. Facebook users will be able to add music from a catalogue containing millions of works to videos they create and share with their audiences.

PRS for Music for explains that Facebook’s community continues to grow with more than 2.1 billion people now using the platform every month and 1.4 billion people using Facebook daily.

PRS for Music says it is “delighted to continue deepening our relationship with music by partnering with ICE in a first-of-its-kind licensing deal.”

Ben McEwen, Commercial Director at ICE Services, said: “ICE will be working with Facebook during the ongoing development of its rights reporting systems to ensure accurate royalties data. ICE currently has over 40 online music licences in place with some of the world’s largest music streaming platforms and has distributed over €300 million to rights holders since 2016.” To read PRS for Music’s press release in full, click here.