The worst policy you’ve never heard of.

For nearly 60 years, a couple of clauses buried in the Copyright Act have capped what Australian artists earn from broadcast radio. 

These statutory limits on our income- called ‘radio caps’- have to go. Removing the limits would cost the government $0 and would give artists the fair go they deserve.  

Currently, commercial radio pays around 0.55% of its nearly $1 billion in revenue for the music it plays every day. 

Meanwhile, the ABC pays artists and rightsholders just $139,000 a year out of a $1.1 billion budget for radio and sound recordings.

No other country in the world has a radio cap like this. This is an affront to every Australian artist and music-lover- and yet most people have never heard of it. It’s a policy failure hiding in plain sight.

What the caps actually do

Statutory limits in federal legislation control what broadcasters must pay to play recorded music on broadcast radio. It was only ever meant to be a temporary measure, but it’s never been changed. Artists can't negotiate. Radio broadcasters don't have to.

A matter of fairness

As recording artists, we’re asking the Government to finally fix this. Let artists freely negotiate the value of their work. Six reviews have recommended the same thing. 

This is about fairness. The Government recently extended commercial broadcasting tax relief — a portion of which will go to commercial broadcast radio. Commercial broadcast radio remains profitable. The Government cannot back broadcasting with one hand and hold artists back with the other.

Australian music is worth protecting, and we deserve to be paid fairly. Removing the radio caps could increase income for Australia's most-played artists by 78%, and  double the number of new Australian artists played on the radio for the first time.  If the Government is serious about cultural policy that supports the Australian music industry,  this is the simplest, fastest, and fairest reform available.