Last year PRS decided to begin legal proceedings against Soundcloud, after 5 years of negotiations failed to produce an agreement regarding licensing.

The agreement covers the use of repertoire controlled by PRS for Music since the service launched. It is an important step to towards a level playing field for the licensing of online services in a way that songwriters, composers and their music publishers can be paid properly for the use of their music online. Soundcloud will start reporting the usage of copyright controlled materials, although initiailly accuracy will be an issue, until thre reporting tools and process evolve.

This could be an important step towards a fully functioning online marketplace for songwriters.