There are many bodies that you can join.

• PRS: Nothing to do with a record label as it collects money for performers, but worth joining as an individual performer/musician if you can, as there’s always a chance you may get played on UK Radio 1 and you get about £20 a minute for that. You get much less, if anything, for local radio airplay as they don’t tell PRS about every single record they play.
  WHO can join: Composers and songwriters, Lyrical authors, Music arrangers, Music Publishers, Successors of deceased members.
  PROOF & PAYMENT:
  Writers will be required to provide a letter from either a broadcaster, promoter or venue owner confirming the broadcast or performance and pay a one-off fee of £100 (including VAT).
  Publishers will be required to provide copies of their publishing or sub-publishing agreements and pay a one-off fee of £400 (including VAT)
  Successors... would normally be appointed in a will, so PRS always tries to act so that the royalties can be paid as set out in the will or by the law and is free.
  website: www.prs.co.uk. email: admissions@mcps-prs-alliance.co.uk tel: 020 7306 4805 write: Writer/Publisher Admissions. Performing Right Society Ltd. 29-33 Berners Street, London, W1T 3AB.
• PPL: Collect licence fees from broadcast and public performance users on behalf of the record companies. This licence fee revenue, after deduction of running costs, is then distributed to our record company members and to performers. There is no joining fee. You may apply for membership if you hold the public performance and broadcast rights in the UK for repertoire (ie, as long as its your music or your band wrote it.) You do have to tell them about each release, when, where, who, what, give it your special number (you get a special catalogue identity CAE? number) which in theory will sit under the digital song on a cd and be spotted by radio etc.. so you actually get automatically logged and paid for every track played all over the world. I don’t think this works yet. Lots of forms, but again, if you get played on UK Radio 1 your label gets about £20 a minute again. It does also mean that you have your music dated officially which can’t be a bad thing copyright-wise. www.ppluk.com - click on Members - then Member registration.
• MCPS: Mechanical copyright. If a company makes a copy of your music (making cds/records) they need a form from MCPS saying that’s ok. If someone does this with your music you get money ( I believe, its never happened, as we always make our own stuff). If you are producing records of your own music then there is no payment. Lots of forms, not much benefit. Though there is now this online automatic thing called Catco that sorts your PPL/MCPS stuff.
  If you think membership of MCPS is right for you, please send your request for an application form by e-mail (including your full name and address) to admissions@mcps-prs-alliance.co.uk, or call us on 020 7306 4805. www.mcps.co.uk
• VPL: What the hell, we made a couple of videos, a clip got on TV so we got a bit of money! VPL collect on TV/videos.
• Radio. This is nothing to do with anything really, but, if you are playing live for someone like the BBC then the more people performing, the more money you get. This sounds obvious i'm sure - just make sure your drummer slaps his/her thighs in front of a mike, bring in a backing choir etc...