As I understand it, once the Act becomes active, there are not going to be any Public Entertainment Licences anymore,

So far so good.

- but only a section in a Licencing Application primarily for selling alcohol, which will allow the applicants to opt in to having it cover certain types of entertainment. However without signing this opt-in, they will also be allowed, by virtue of the Alcohol licence, to permit music of certain kinds in certain circumstances.

No regulated entertainment will be allowed unless venues with a Premises Licence have first applied for an obtained additional licensing permission and specified its nature. Exactly the same goes for venues not wishing to serve alcohol.

S 177 is still being 'spun' as an exemption for small pubs and bars only. But as they have to hold a Premises Licence and already been granted the additional permission for regulated entertainment and have a local authority safe capacity imposed first - it can hardly be that. All it does is prevent the LA from placing conditions on the Premises Licence for two of the Act's four objectives.

The only real hope is that sessions etc can be considered by your LA as incidental live music and exempt from the additional licensing requirement, along with incidental recorded music. I think that would then mean that your local cafe for example - not serving alcohol - would not need a Premises Licence?