CHANGES TO MUSIC ROYALTY FEES & NEW LICENSING IDENTITY

If your club, pub, casino, bar, café, restaurant, function centre, fitness centre or any other business arm uses music – either live or recorded and whether for background or entertainment – then this affects you. That even applies right down to music on your “call on hold” phone message service.

A new entity and joint venture of APRA and the Phonographic Performance Company of Australia (PPCA), OneMusic, has proposed changes which some parts of the industry claim will result in music royalties almost doubling by $150,000 a year.  And again, venues are threating to boycott Australian artists as a result.

APRA AMCOS’ Head of Revenue & Licensing, Richard Mallett told The Music that the proposal offers a “simplified process”.

“For years venues have been asking for a simplified process to license all their music use, and now we will be able to deliver a one-stop-shop approach,” Mallett said.

“I want to stress this scheme is still at proposal stage and we sincerely welcome feedback from the industry so that together we can finalise a system that is fair and viable for all – the industry, songwriters and recording artists.”

Mallet also stated that the result was an average saving of 3.8% for venues currently licensed under both APRA AMCOS’ and PPCA’s current schemes.

PPCA General Manager, Lynne Small said “There is time for healthy debate from industry and artists. It is up to the industry to present us with alternatives and OneMusic Australia will consider that against the rights of our members and licensors to be fairly remunerated ahead of launch late next year.”

Venues are encouraged to provide feedback on the OneMusic Australia license proposal by 27 November.

Click here to see detailed proposals for each of the venue types >>

There are “Consultation” details for Clubs, Hotels, Dining, Fitness, Karaoke, Telephone On Hold, Corporate & Workplace amongst others.

Sources: The Music / OneMusic