Firstly PRS is a cooperative, its actions are as representatives of all those friendly song writers you know who are members. Nobody has to join, although PRS effectively have a monopoly. PRS is not an arm of government nor a quango.

You are only require a licence from them if you play music in your premises which is copyright by one of their members. Play music licenced using say Creative Commons or that is out of copyright and you owe them no licence fees.

I just wonder how many folk clubs are in premises that are paying the £10 PRS fee per musical event (if its a pub) -- even if only a handful turn up it is still £10. By way of comparison, here in Canada, SOCAN charge a fee per annum of $60 - £34 or 3% of revenue which ever is higher. For 50 events that is $1.20 (£0.68) per event.

The PRS and SOCAN agree on the 3% of revenue for larger premises. The PRS is very heavy handed with small premises and events, I suspect a large proportion of that they collect from this activity goes to pay for sales work - all those salesman trawling through yellow pages and local adverts.

I would suggest SOCAN collects no less money for its members it just doesn't employ an army of salesman to pester small premises.