Anyone else owning a business being hassled by the "Performing Arts Society"

Question

I keep getting calls and constant threatening letters regarding the playing of music within the workplace and paying for a Licience to do so legally, they are really getting to be a pain, we dont play Radios or anything and i am getting seriously fed up with the constant threats, i have told them where to go, but they just keep coming back, is it a scam??, anyone else having this problem, they seem to be doing the rounds in Manchester

Answer 1

Do you mean PRS Performing Rights Society.  Yes they bug every business large and small. They are a genuine body and cover the rights of musicians to collect their royalties if any form of their music is performed or a recording of theirs played in a public place.  Therefore if you play music in your building you must pay the license fee.

Answer 2

Technically its not a scam and you are not alone :-



http://www.fsb.org.uk/discuss/forum_post...

Answer 3

They seem to be particularly active at the moment.  We've been lucky to escape for now, although we had lots of correspondence a few years ago but another business we know has had several communications from them.

No doubt, there will be a few unscrupulous sorts who will try to jump on the bandwagon, in the same way that they have over Data Protection.

In your case, you just need to keep repeating that you don't play music of any sort.  You could invite them to visit you to demonstrate that you don't play music or copy every previous letter to them on the subject when you next respond!