crippling/creative industries

Fucking hegemonic bastards. The PPCA (Phonographic Performance Company of Australia) - who you just know are in the pockets of record companies (well actually that's their whole purpose, to represent them and these little plebs called musicians, but the latter are really peripheral) have just had their decision to hike licensing fees for venues to play recorded music upheld in the Federal Court. It's risen from 7c per person up to $1.05 a person, with dance party rates going from 20c to $3.07. Of course this absolutely kills the various pubs and clubs playing Australian music, who are now considering their options:
  • Approach the nice record companies individually and ask them to be nice (yeah, right).
  • Drop Australian recorded music and go for live music; or
  • Drop Australian recorded music and exclusively play US jams, which don't attract the same fees (a far more likely scenario considering it's ease and economy versus the live option)
Of course this presents a situation in which potentially we could see a beautiful explosion in the number of live Australian acts being paid to play music around the country. But then seeing as the majority of venues (and that's anywhere that plays recorded music) aren't indie clubs but rather local pubs, clubs, and hotels that are generally hostile to any live music other than terrible cover bands, the likelihood is that it creates a self-defeating situation in which both: a) no more or less Australian bands get paid for playing live, and b) certainly Australian bands (marginal or otherwise) get paid far less in recorded music royalty fees seeing as venues will drop playing Australian stuff because of the price hike.

Of course, this is just another example of a record industry in the death throes doing the best to milk the fuck out of the one thing the still have left: property. In the face of this whole 'digital music' thing, we're now seeing all these really cynical and desperate attempts to pull money out of the stuff they already have. Another case in point would be these bullshit new '360' degree deals US record companies are trying to push on their artists, which really operate on the reverse principal - "hey, we've got fuck all money coming from selling records, which is our stated purpose, so why not let's try scamming the fuck out of artists on our roster by asking for money from them for touring and merchandising and all that too? Even though we do little to help them in that department!".

I don't think these strategies are viable in the long term, nor are they very productive for (local) music as a whole.

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