Your correct Tom the charge is a small charge compared to the annual turnover of a pub, however margins are very low in tenanted pubs so its a significant additional cost off the margin.

In my experience landlords rightly see it as a cost associated with that particular event and quickly realise that they need to sell a lot of beer to recoup £7.92 for the session. They quickly look for other less costly groups to invite into the pub.

Clearly the PRS aren't interested in changing their policy. We should be considering lobbying the government to exclude participant music events from licencing. My suggestions is that events where 30% or more present participate in music or dance can perform any published work without requiring a licence.