Hi I love your site and its great your working for the better of the artists,we have a club and obviously have to pay apra and I don’t care about that as long as the artists get there fair share,

Thanks for your support of the site/space . I agree, the problem I see with the way the club scene works in Australia is that your paying the same cost for well published artists as for artists that are not published at all. *This means that its more likely that your going to choose artists that are well published or pull a crowd in your area. Often this does not reflect on the talent of the artist.  APRA create difficult conditions for the venue and they understand this. APRA have very little incentive to do anything about this though. The artist needs to be educated to the damage that he or she creates for themselves and others when they join apra. Have you thought to contact the ACCC and let them know about the problems that you see with APRA ? Gavin.Jones (at) accc.gov.au I can print your letter on the optAPRA site, with or without your name.

there is talk they are now going to up there rates 1000%  to the club which will literally put us in a position where we cant afford to trade will cost our venue at least $1200 per night to open before all our other costs leaving us making a zero profit period and thus closing down.

Are you sure that this happening ? If this happened, then artists not with APRA would be more suited to performing in your venue. This might be a good thing. Artists would really have to think hard if it was worth them joining APRA. Have you thought to create better conditions for artists not with APRA within your club ?

Some large clubs may afford this but we in no way could cover that with winter and especially with the no smoking laws and 3am lockout. Im worried of coarse for our business but am concerned how many other venues will suffer the same and thus making it harder for you guys to do what you do best and perform live and have your music affect people out partying. It will make the only means for getting music heard is by radio or internet in a society that lives indoors.

 Did you know that the terms and conditions that the artist agrees to when they join myspace are in conflict with the contract that artists have with APRA. Have you thought to create a contract for artists to sign when they perform in your venue, so that conditions are in your favor.  If a group of venues created this contract you would have the possibility of fighting APRA together. The ACCC consider APRA's right to operate has a major impact on competition. Why not just create a system that competes with APRA and use the ACCC findings as your reason for creating the contract ? Speak to a lawyer, maybe some doors are open that you can't see. APRA may be forced to comply with different conditions, if the condtiond of your contract created a better live environment, just as myspace did on the internet.  Again I want to say that I am no legal expert, I think that their are other options open to you.

What have you found out about apra’s laws and is there anyway around this where clubs can pay artists directly for there work or play other music etc.
Your thoughts would be greatly appreciated.

I understand that the ACCC is putting pressure on APRA so that artists are given the right to license back. Well I hope they are. The more people like yourself that complain to the ACCC about APRA, the better conditions are going to be in the future. More people are staying home and being entertained through the internet, so its worth fighting for the rights of live performance and artists that self publish.