Should music be given away free?

[TechMouse]

Another question worth asking, i dunno if this happens at parties that are a lot bigger, but it obviously doesn't at smaller parties.....if you play a record in a club, should the DJ pay royalties to the artist, just like a band who does a cover would, or a pub with a jukebox?

Technically you should submit tracklists to the venue, who should then submit them to PRS. Any producers who are PRS registered will receive a percentage of the money in the PRS pot.

As it stands, the big name pop acts get the majority of the money because of radio plays and big club plays, but if all the little guys registered and submitted tracklists we'd claw some of it back.

It's especially worth it if you ever get stuff played on Radio (e.g. I had a track played on Annie Nightingale's show a couple of years back, and if I had been PRS registered it might have meant a little bit of cash - maybe enough for a pint or something).