Guest, even if if you are a "struggling artist" presumably you still pay for food and drink, pay for your instruments, pay for new strings etc? Or do you feel that because you're an "artist" you're entitled to steal them from others. I assume (I hope) the answer to these is "no".

If you don't have the talent to write your own songs, why then do you feel it's right to steal the work of those who have that talent? If they're truly your own emotions and ideas which you're voicing, then there shouldn't be a problem - join the PRS and get back the royalties for your own songs.

That's what this is about - if you're a performer you can get paid for performing, but a composer you can only get paid from royalties. It's the composers' rights which the PRS is set up to protect.

The mechanisms of PRS may be crude and inefficient, and are frequently criticised, but no musician should criticise the principle of copyright. If you're a composer yourself, it's a way of getting paid for your work. If you're not, it helps to ensure that there are songs for you to perform.