Higher Music Fees at Nightclubs

In Australia, nightclubs pay record labels and artists a royalty fee of 7 Australian cents per guest but "under a recent copyright settlement [the] rate has risen to 50 cents per customer, and it is set to jump to 1.05 dollars, or 84 U.S. cents, in a few years." The Phonographic Performance Co of Australia chief executive, Stephen Peach argues that "Without music, there wouldn't be a nightclub," therefore paying only 7 cents out of a $10-15 cover for music plus the money that comes in from people buying liquor just "doesn't seem right."

The international body that governs record royalty payments, IFPI notes that royalty revenue has increased for the record industry by 16 percent, while music sales have fell by 8 percent. IFPI is urging that other countries follow Australia's lead because it is aggressively pushing to raise royalty revenues for the industry. Do you think nightclubs should pay fees for playing music? They pay fees for selling liquor, so why not? But it would have to be reasonable because owning and profiting from a nightclub is hard enough. We'll see if this discussion gets here soon as the concern now seems to radio. For more info on this visit the NY Times.