Music Victoria has joined Rock Posters and other Melbourne businesses to launch a vaccination campaign to encourage Melburnians to get vaccinated against COVID-19.
The month-long 'Mighty V' campaign will be visible on advertisement sites across Melbourne due to contributions of over $10,000 made by 22 partner organisations, including Music Victoria. The campaign will aid Support Act and its crisis relief program, which brings much-needed support to those in the music industry who have lost work, gigs and their livelihoods due to the pandemic.
View this post on Instagram
In early August, Support Act announced it received an additional $20 million in funding from the Australian Government. The organisation will expand its outreach beyond the music industry to support artists, creatives, production and technical crew working across the broader arts sector from 23 August.
The Mighty V campaign is one of two vaccination campaigns Music Victoria helped launch this month. On August 20, Music Victoria launched #GetVaxxed4Vic, an online campaign to encourage the music industry and music lovers to get vaccinated to aid the Victorian live music scene in reopening.
You can also support artists and music workers by donating to Support Act here or Music Victoria here.
This afternoon brings more devasting news as Victoria prepares to enter Lockdown 6.0 at 8pm tonight which means more lost gigs and income for the Victorian Music Industry.
We are still working with the Australian Music Industry Network and the Australian Festival Association to tally the impact of lost gigs across Victoria so we can help find ways to support people and businesses who have been affected. The I LOST MY GIG survey has received 2, 526 responses so far but we know there are so many more people who have been affected by lost gigs. If you lost a gig due to COVID-19 in 2021, please fill out the survey now.
You can read the data collected from the survey so far below.
Our Soundtrack Our Stories, launched Thursday 5 August 2021, is an initiative to soundtrack Australian lives with Australian music. It’s that simple. But one simple move will have a monumental impact on the lives of our homegrown, globally-loved, local artists whose livelihoods have been rocked by the ongoing pandemic. This campaign is about celebrating Australian music and the people making it.
What is ‘Our Soundtrack Our Story’?
Our Soundtrack Our Stories is an open invitation from our country's music community to the rest of Australia to discover, champion, share, and consume more local music. It exists to promote our artists, promote the enormous economic and cultural contribution of local music, and ensure a bright, bold, diverse and exciting future for the next generation of musicians and music lovers alike. The initiative arrives exactly one week after Jack River, real name Holly Rankin, posted the now viral call-to-arms for Australian media and business to get behind homegrown music as it struggles under the pressure of a new wave of lockdowns – all but eliminating prospects for live touring for the foreseeable future – the initiative calls for public commitment to increase the inclusion of diverse Australian artists in the commercial and mainstream landscape.
How will ‘Our Soundtrack Our Story’ help homegrown artists?
Greater support from corporate Australia means greater reach for our artists, which translates to everything from higher streams, new fans and increased royalty revenue. That support could not come at a more important time, with over $64,000,000 in revenue lost since 1 July 2021 among just 2,000 respondents to the I Lost My Gig survey. With 99% of that revenue revealed to be uninsurable, the real figure is significantly higher. This push will invite everyday people to view Australian music in a new light.
How Do I Get Involved?
How can I get involved in ‘Our Soundtrack Our Story’?
I am an Aussie musician - how do I make sure that I am getting paid if my music is played?
If you release recorded music in Australia, there are two copyrights attached to those recordings: one for the composition and one for the recording. The composition’s rights are overseen by APRA AMCOs, while the recording's rights are handled by PPCA. It is free to register with both organisations and only takes a few minutes.
Find out more from APRA AMCOS and PPCA.
I am a local business owner, how can I support ‘Our Soundtrack Our Story’?
What do you mean by local/homegrown/Australian Artists?
Whilst we appreciate the cultural impact of music released in the past few decades of Australian music this initiative puts particular emphasis on championing artists from a diverse range of genres and backgrounds, with a push towards music released in the past decade.
What is a Background Music Supplier?
There are a number of different Background Music Suppliers in Australia who are able to create playlists that are best suited to your customers and update these playlists so that the music they supply you with is kept fresh. Some of these suppliers will have existing licences with organisations such as One Music so that the fees can be accurately distributed to the creators of the music.
Costs range between around $35 and $200 a month, excluding music licensing fees, depending on the supplier and what other services and hardware are included. If you are a retailer, Service provider or dining establishment your OneMusic Australia music licence fees can also be bundled into the overall fees charged by the supplier.
For more information visit OneMusic Australia.
Why do I need a music licence to play music / why can’t I use my preferred streaming platform in my shop?
Due to the way music is licenced by streaming services such as; Spotify, Apple Music, Amazon Music and Youtube music, these services are only for personal and non-commercial use. This means that you are not allowed to use these services to broadcast or play music publicly in any business ie. Schools, Bars, Restaurants, Dance Studio, Stores, Salons and Radio Stations. By obtaining the correct music licence or enlisting the help of background music suppliers you can make sure that the artists you are playing are getting paid correctly.
Why can’t these businesses just change the music they play?
Whilst we would love for these businesses to start playing local music over night in some cases, in particular with larger businesses, there are existing licensing deals in place that directly relate to the music they play in-store, or on their hold music. That is why it is important to approach this initiative on every level so that we can preserve these existing relationships whilst making local music more accessible and these businesses accountable.
AAM, AMPAL, APRA AMCOS, ARIA, Australian Festival Association, BMG, Eleven, EMC, EMI, Hutch Collective, Inertia, John Watson Management, Kobalt, Lemontree Music, Live Music Office, Live Nation, MEAA, Mushroom Labels and Mushroom Group, Music ACT, Music NSW, Music NT, Music SA, Music Victoria, Nightlife, PPCA, Q Music, Sony Music, Sony Music Publishing, Sounds Australia, Support Act, The Process, TMWR, Unified, Universal Music Group Australia, Warner Music Australia, Warner Chappel Australia.
The Victorian Music Industry is currently facing one of the toughest times in history.
Unfortunately, it’s not until a crisis that people really start to understand what an organisation like Music Victoria does – we fight for music.
Our most recent work has been squarely focused on advocating for financial support, for better conditions (including the easing of restrictions), and more generally providing information, advice and friendly faces for music makers, music workers, and music lovers in Victoria.
If you value this work, then please consider making an end-of-financial year donation here.
Every dollar donated will help Music Victoria to deliver more advocacy campaigns, more services and more professional development opportunities - all designed to support musicians, music businesses, music professionals, music venues, music festivals and music lovers across the contemporary Victorian music community.
Music Victoria is an independent organisation, registered with the Australian Charities and Not-for-profits Commission (making all donations of $2+ tax-deductible), set up to specifically service the music sector.
Music is always there for us – will you be there for music?
With deep gratitude,
Simone Schinkel
Chief Executive Officer
Dear Members and the greater Victorian music industry,
With many of you feeling the pressure at a whole new level, I write to share the work we at Music Victoria are currently doing on your behalf.
It can be quite hard to explain advocacy, but essentially, our job is to listen to you and to pass the collective sentiment of our members on to government, including solutions to the problem of the day.
At this very moment, I am hyper-aware of the implications of lockdown and the 1600 gigs that are lost across the state each and every week that this continues.
I also know that many of you are tired of fighting – for support, for understanding, for recognition. If this is you, please look after yourself first and foremost.
In the meantime, here is what Music Victoria is doing:
Prior to this we had been working tirelessly to remove the capacity restrictions and were finally seeing some wins – which we will be picking right back up again, as soon as this most immediate challenge is done.
We certainly won’t always win, but we will keep working and fighting for the Victorian music industry.
Finally, if you think we have missed something – please don’t hesitate to reach out. We are here to represent you!
Warmly,
Simone Schinkel
CEO
Music venues in Victoria have today taken their punters' safety into their own hands by launching a NO QR, NO ENTRY policy. Initiated by Save Our Scene as a proactive measure to address the concerns of the Department of Health, music venues across Victoria are confirming their COVIDSafe compliance on a registry hosted by Music Victoria.
"We know that QR Code compliance is a big piece of the puzzle. We’re stepping up to show Health that music venues and music fans can be trusted to do the right thing."
– Simone Ubaldi, Venue Booker, The Croxton Bandroom; Manager, Amyl and the Sniffers.
To combat seemingly arbitrary disparities in restrictions between indoor non-seated venues (which make up the majority of music venues) and other industries or social settings – Save Our Scene and Music Victoria are working together to ensure that music venues have a QR code check in rate of 100%. This would enable fast contact tracing in the case of an outbreak and make live music one of the safest and most compliant industries in the state. This is ahead of the 28 May deadline announced on Friday.
“As an industry we are doing and will continue to do whatever is asked of us from Health in order to create safe environments for artists and audiences. That is number one priority, not just during COVID times but always.”
–Correne Wilkie, Manager, The Cat Empire and Boy & Bear.
In addition to this new policy, many music venues have a second line of defence, through their ticketing system with Moshtix, Oztix and Eventbrite implementing mandatory Track and Trace fields, for not only the ticket purchaser – but for each guest.
"It’s in everyone’s best interest to have good contact tracing –especially with the delay in vaccine rollout – but for music venues –it’s our chance to prove that we are absolutely serious about working with the health department."
– Ben Thompson, Venue Booker, 170 Russell
With this new QR policy and such high compliance rates Save Our Scene expects to see the further easing of restrictions in June.
"We desperately need to keep pushing up the capacities of our music venues. Friday’s announcement has alleviated the pressure on about half of our venue members, but there are still many who remain severely impacted by the density quotient of 1 person per 2 square metres."
– Simone Schinkel, CEO, Music Victoria
The Victorian live music sector contributes over $1.7 billion per year 2 in GDP (including ancillary spending by patrons) and on an annual basis 116,000 full time equivalent jobs are created through the live music with every $1 spent on live music returning $3 in value.
Save Our Scene and Music Victoria urges live music audiences to get behind this campaign.
To see who is on the registry head to www.musicvictoria.com.au/the_registry
To register your venue head to www.musicvictoria.com.au/registration
Download and print the "NO QR, NO ENTRY" poster for your venue here
Dear Members and the Music Community,
While many of you may already be across this (because you are so directly impacted by it), I am writing to clarify the present situation for Music in Victoria.
Firstly, New COVIDSafe Settings introduced on Friday 9th April have had little to no positive impact on our industry.
While the first line of the announcement may read that we are back to 100% of total capacity - the devil is in the detail.
We have communicated our industry's grave concerns around these restrictions to the Department of Health (DH), and disappointingly, they have not yet introduced any changes to remedy the situation. We are continuing to have these discussions with them, in order to bring about the changes our live industry needs to be operating at optimum levels.
We want to make the current situation clear to those inside the industry and to those who just care about music more generally.
We share your absolute and total frustration with the current situation and are working to do all that we can to make it change.
Our recent/current work includes:
Here's how you can help:
We're in this together and we're fighting for you.
Simone Schinkel (CEO) and the team at Music Victoria
Music Victoria is pleased to announce an updated 2021 edition of the Best Practice Guidelines for Venues.
These guidelines provide information for venue operators who are planning to host, or already host, live music at their venue. Topics covered by the guidelines include managing sound to maintain a positive relationship with neighbours, providing a safe environment for patrons, staff and musicians to enjoy the live music experience, and building constructive working relationships with musicians.
Recent updates include:
This document will continue to be updated regularly. Venues can check it out here.
NB. This guide doesn’t contain COVID-specific venue information which is continually changing. The latest information can be found here: https://www.coronavirus.vic.gov.au/arts-and-entertainment-services-sector-guidance