Don Firth - ASCAP/BMI, etc. do not have the right to collect royalties from your employer who hires you to sing only "trad" songs that are in the public domain. I believe Jed Marum stated above that the copyright organizations are running on the assumption that if a venue of any kind is operating with music as part of its ambiance, then at some point they are going to be using copyrighted material from the clients they represent.

Right? Wrong? Who's to say; but, if the place you are performing at insists that all of the music presented at its facility is either public domain or belongs to the specific performer in question, then it falls upon the shoulders of ASCAP/BMI to prove otherwise, which they will try to do over an extended period of time by periodically monitoring and documenting the music being presented on the premises - which leads us back to my comment about the experienced pub owner who "knows his way around the bush." Cheers,...................mwh