Musicians Want Gov. Task Force

The dozen included the Association of Artist Managers, the Australian Independent Record Labels Association (AIR), performance rights APRA AMCOS, music industry data provider and broker Music Australia and eight state music associations represented by the Australian Music Industry Network. The groups said the contemporary sector brings in between A$7 billion to A$8 billion ($5.2 billion to $6 billion) a year, based on 2013 figures from Music Australia.

But its artists face uncertainty and constraint due to globalisation, piracy and the shift to streaming services “significantly impacting on the ability of professional musicians to earn a living wage.”

Most earn less than $10,000 ($7,500) a year, it said. “Ninety-nine percent of Australia’s music and performing arts businesses turn over less than $2 million ($1.5 million) per annum, and some 88 percent are micro-businesses, turning over under $200,000 ($150,000) per annum,” it continued. The groups offered to work closely with the Government to reach a solution to enable the continued delivery of “high-quality art to a broad Australian audience” and usher in an “increase [in] the nation’s economic productivity.”