"When someone is performing publicly and being paid for it, it makes sense that some of the money involved should go to the songwriter. But in a situation where no payment is being received by the singer, any kind of charge for using the song just seems inappropriate to me."

This has been argued before, without success, although many people agree with you - but the argument, presumably, is that the venue makes money out of it.

In effect, most songwriters are not concerned about getting royalties on performances by unpaid performers, as it gets their songs out there and known, therefore they have the chance of being picked up and recorded, when they should get royalties out of them.

What concerns me far more is the money PRS get from these small venue licences, when no returns are filled in. That is when, presumably, the money is divided between the 'big names' of the entertainment/song-writing world. And, by and large, no money goes from the folk clubs/sessions to the songwriters represented there, nor to EFDSS or anyone else publishing traditional songs. Nor would money be able to go to a body such as the National Sound Archive for those songs, as has been suggested in another thread.

Barbara