PRS For Music have apologised to a shop assistant who works at a village shop in Scotland after telling her that she would need a license if she wanted to sing in the shop. They've apparently now sent her a bouquet of flowers with a note saying: "We're very sorry we made a big mistake. We hear you have a lovely singing voice and we wish you good luck".
It all started when PRS sent the shop one of those letters informing its owner that he needed a music licence if he had music radio playing in store. The shopkeeper decided to lose the radio instead of paying. Quite what conversation then occurred to lead to a PRS rep saying that the shop would still need a licence if staff members sang to themselves we're not sure. But such a thing was seemingly said.
The woman in question, Sandra Burt, told the BBC: "I would start to sing to myself when I was stacking the shelves just to keep me happy because it was very quiet without the radio. When I heard that the PRS said I would be prosecuted for not having a performance licence, I thought it was a joke and started laughing. I was then told I could be fined thousands of pounds. But I couldn't stop myself singing. They would need to put a plaster over my mouth to get me to stop, I can't help it".
The whole thing was totally worth it for the picture the BBC got to go with the story, though: news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/tayside_and_central/8317952.stm