Malta’s music royalties for songwriters are collected by PRS for Music, a UK society, and every Malta tariff it publishes is dated 1 January 2009.
For anyone whose songs play in Maltese shops, bars and hotels, that sets who pays, how often, and on which rate card.
How the Malta pipe works
PRS lists Malta among its directly managed territories, alongside Cyprus, Gibraltar, Bermuda and the Bahamas. It publishes separate tariffs for shops, restaurants, hotels and cinemas.
- Who authorises it: Malta’s Copyright Board, set up under Article 45 of the Copyright Act (Chapter 415), approves which collecting societies may operate and the tariffs they charge.
- How often rates are reviewed: PRS’s own Malta licensing guide says it must submit its tariffs to the Board every two years, with approved rates published in the Government Gazette.
- Where the money goes: the same guide says nearly 90 percent of collections go back to members.
It is the same model Brunei runs from Kuala Lumpur: a local rate card, administered from another country.
What the 2009 rate card charges
All five Malta tariffs on the PRS site are headed “Effective from 1st January 2009.” They still print Maltese lira equivalents beside each euro figure, although Malta adopted the euro in 2008.
- A shop with music audible over up to 30 square metres pays 47.74 euros a year at the standard rate, or 95.48 euros in its first year if it played music before taking a licence.
- A shop whose only source is a single radio or small TV pays 30.97 euros.
- A restaurant with live music pays 6 percent of what it pays the performers.
Each tariff lets PRS raise its figures without notice, within official inflation, so the printed number may not match today’s invoice. What the public record does not show is a new rate card. In Cyprus, PRS reissued its general tariff with effect from 15 June 2025.
The board that approves the rates
The Commerce Department’s Copyright Board page, as archived in December 2025, says the current board took office on 20 February 2018. It names chairman Ivan Sammut and one member, Fredrick Cutajar, and lists the second member seat, the sub-member and the secretary as vacant.
No public document explains the gap between a two-year review rule and a 2009 rate card. For writers, the point is simpler: Maltese venue income is priced on old figures and can rise only with inflation.
What a Maltese songwriter should do
Join and register every work
PRS charges writers a one-off 100 pounds for lifetime membership, or 30 pounds under the age of 25. Membership starts on 1 January or 1 July depending on when you apply, and joining assigns your performing right exclusively to PRS.
Fingerprint every version
PRS’s Malta page tells writers and publishers to upload audio to BMAT so their use can be tracked. The upload guide it links builds your login from your PRS CAE number and says each recorded version needs its own upload, because the fingerprint comes from the actual audio. A radio edit, a remix and an acoustic take are three uploads.
Plan around the calendar
- Main distributions land in April, July, October and December, and streaming royalties are paid monthly, according to PRS’s payment dates.
- International members are paid once their balance reaches 60 pounds, against 30 for UK members. In October the threshold drops to 1 pound for everyone.
- PRS’s own example: a TV play in January may not be reported until April, so payment usually arrives in July.
The recording is a separate pipe
PRS licenses the song, not the recording. Its Cyprus licensing FAQ sends businesses to Grammo for record-company rights. On streaming services, the master share reaches you through your distributor.
Malta is not the only former British territory whose music rights still route through London; Guyana’s copyright law was written there in 1956. The lever you fully control is metadata: identical writer names, IPI numbers and ISRCs across your PRS registrations and your distributor delivery. Keeping those consistent is what DDEX-native delivery through InterSpace Distribution is built for.
