[LINK] Music fee hike backfires

[Kim Holburn]

http://www.bendigoadvertiser.com.au/news/local/news/general/music-fee-hike-backfires/1646165.aspx

> Music fee hike backfires
> 12/10/2009 9:08:00 AM
> A PUSH by Australian record companies to make clubs, hotels,  
> restaurants and cafes pay tens of millions of dollars more in fees  
> to play their music has backfired.
> Businesses have decided to turn off tunes licensed by the record  
> companies and play the music of artists that are not signed to major  
> labels.
>
> The scheme would have increased some license fees from around $500  
> to almost $36,000.
>
> A Clubs Australia spokesman was unable to say how many central  
> Victorian businesses would have been slugged with the drastic cost  
> hike.
>
> “We’re talking about every restaurant, cafe and club being  
> affected,” the spokesman said yesterday.
>
> The fee changes would have resulted in businesses such as the  
> Bendigo Club, which staff said yesterday had a bistro capacity of  
> about 50, paying $3075.80 instead of the usual $62.04.
>
> Bendigo District RSL staff said their bistro had a capacity of about  
> 120, which would have increased fees by about $8500.
>
....

> "Clubs are today drawing a line in the sand and will no longer use  
> music licensed by the big Australian record labels that requires  
> they pay an annual fee to the PPCA."



-- 
Kim Holburn
IT Network & Security Consultant
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