We are standing with Australia’s songwriters and artists to demand consent and payment, not a free-for-all for big tech
The Australian Live Music Business Council is backing the APRA AMCOS open letter to government, which makes a simple case: Australia’s creators are not a free input for big tech, and their work should not be used without permission or payment.
The letter, signed by songwriters, artists, producers and creative businesses across the country, asks the Government to commit to the future of creativity and not trade it away. The point is blunt. Without creative content there are no AI products, yet that work has been fed into AI systems without anyone asking and without anyone being paid.
For live music this is not abstract. Every gig, venue and festival starts with a song somebody wrote. The businesses and workers we represent rely on a creative pipeline that is healthy, protected and fairly paid. Weaken the rights that make a creative career possible and you gut the pipeline that keeps live music alive.
The Government already rejected a plan last year to let AI companies use Australian work for free, and that was the right call.
ALMBC is calling on our members to add their names. The ask is clear: consent and payment for creative work, through the legal system built to make that happen, not a fund a tech company can switch off whenever it suits them.
