Beeliner, thanks for pointing out the mistake in my post.

I'm no supporter of PRS's methods, as opposed to its aims, but it seems probable to me that they are now targeting smaller users because they have already got the bigger users signed up. Anyway, it's nothing new, they've always gone for smaller users as well as the large ones, and their attitude has always been agressive and objectionable.

Some replies have suggested that schools and other educational establishments should not have to pay for music at all. As VT says, the issue is more about how much they should pay. If schools are being priced out of using music that is because PRS's pricing structure is wrong. But you could say the same about other essentials like textbooks, or teachers, or toilet rolls. Schools, just like everyone else, should expect to pay for what they consume.

There are two big problems with PRS. The first is that it is a monopoly (worse, one with statutory support), so it can set its prices and if you don't like you've no alternative other than not to use any copyright music (and even then you'll have an argument). The other is that it is an inefficient bureaucracy. Since there isn't really a workable alternative, most of its members are probably glad to get whatever money finally filters its way down to them. However if the PRS pricing structure is actually deterring people from performing their music, are they really acting in their members' best interests?

Another problem is one which also crops up with the Licensing Act - both seem in capable of recognising that there is a world of public performance outside the "music industry" and which is not run on a commercial basis. To apply the same scale of charges to these and to commercial operations is inappropriate - PRS's charges should pay some regard to the economics of the venue.

I know of at least one folk club which was threatened with closure after the PRS visited, not least because of the PRS rep's obnoxious attitude. So far as the pub landlord was concerned, hosting the folk club was part of the pub's role in the community, not a commercial operation - OK, he'd sell a few extra pints but he was quite prepared to lose the music and the small profit on these rather than pay the PRS.