Garden party licensing

[Phil Starr]

6 hours ago, BigRedX said:

IIRC the BBC licence is for broadcast to private listeners only, and anyone using their radio in a public area are effectively rebroadcasting and also need a licence.

The PRS licence will be required by the organisers of the event and has nothing to do with the band(s) playing - unless they are the organisers.

yep that's the legal situation as I understand it. 

as to the 'reasonableness' of the concept of rebroadcasting to people who have already paid for, and are entitled to hear the same music from their own radios whilst standing in exactly the same spot, well the law is an donkey. As was the situation where John Fogerty was the only person on earth banned from singing Proud Mary or any of the other songs he wrote for CCR because Sony had bought him from another record company who arguably had screwed him over as a very young musician. As you can probably tell I'm not a big fan of performing rights as they are. 

[Monkey Steve]

and I quote:

 "PRS for Music does not make a charge for functions of a purely domestic or family nature, such as wedding receptions, christening parties or domestic birthday parties, when: attendance of guests is by personal invitation only (except for staff, performers, etc.); the function is held in a privately-booked room, not at that time open to the general public; there is no form of charge made for admission; there is no financial gain to the function's organiser or host (e.g. the person hiring the venue)."