The FPB is concerned that the Society's guidance is badly constructed and confusing. There are over 40 price tariffs on its website, listing the many different costs of purchasing a licence, depending on various factors such as the size of a business. In addition, many frustrated members have contacted the FPB's member helpline to complain that PRS staff are less than courteous when they call, and appear to have an agenda to catch firms out. 

"She was forward and aggressive," said Martyn Smith of metal fabricators HMK Ltd in Congleton, Cheshire, an FPB member. "She spoke very fast, like she was reading from something." 

It has also emerged that companies that play holding music to customers on the telephone are required to have a special licence. 

The FPB called the PRS in an attempt to understand what is required of small businesses who do play music in the workplace.  

"There are sometimes grey areas, for instance with airport lounges. We weren't sure where to put them so would likely have to put them under the general tariff," said a PRS spokesman. The FPB is curious how a small business can begin to understand the membership rules and regulations of PRS when many of its own members of staff appear not to. 

Many members who contacted the FPB's membership team have reported that they were asked ‘fishing' questions, and then confronted about the fact they do not have a licence.  

"If the PRS is working on the behalf of small businesses, as it keeps saying it is, then it should understand the administrative burden this places on small businesses," said the FPB's Membership Manager, Maylis Foster. "The PRS should be doing everything it can to reduce this added inconvenience."