BEDA demands talks on PRS fees
by Tom Stainer The British Entertainment & Dance Association (BEDA) has demanded an urgent meeting with the Performing Rights Society (PRS) over the way it charges for music in bars and nightclubs. The PRS fee is either based on the actual attendance at a club when music is being played, or on the total capacity of the premises. However Jon Collins, chief executive of BEDA, claims the PRS is unfairly penalising smaller independent clubs which end up paying on capacity, rather than numbers through the door. "The matter arose at a recent BEDA Scotland committee meeting where several small independent clubs believed they were paying too much to the PRS," he said. "Some clubs may have a capacity for 1,000, but only attract 30 or 40 people on a wet Wednesday evening in January. It seems unfair they have to pay on the more expensive tariff." John Fox, who operates Metro-polis nightclub in Saltcoats, Ayrshire, previously paid on the attendance tariff, but was shocked to receive a letter advising him he was getting charged on his capacity. "I don't know how the PRS can get away with it," he said. "Effectively, they will be charging someone for 250,000 people over the year, for example, when in fact they've only had 80,000 in the club. "I'm now being expected to pay almost twice what I was paying, which is a substantial amount." Charlie Smith, general manager for the PRS in Scotland, said the way the organisation charged had not changed at all and was keen to make it as fair as possible. He said clubs which wanted to pay on the basis of attendance had to be prepared to open their books to PRS auditors and have extremely well-kept records of attendance such as a computerised system. He added clubs which did not supply attendance details within a tight time-frame would find themselves on the capacity tariff.
