Musicians are small businesses too

Being a musician in Australia is hard. Really hard.We’ve played festivals and gigs around the world, sharing the stage with bands like the Backstreet Boys, Midnight Oil and Passenger.Musicians are often undervalued and underpaid, even asked to do gigs for free. But it is because of music rights management organisations like APRA AMCOS that bands like mine can even hope to stay afloat as a business. I’ve earned money as a musician for the last four years. I perform and write my own music as well as music I’ve written with other musicians. This music gets played on radio, streaming services such as Apple and Spotify and is played in hotels and nightclubs around the world. To give you an idea, my band has had 13 million minutes of music streamed in the last two years. That is the equivalent of one person listening to our music non-stop for 25 years. And for this work, I get paid royalties. It is my work. I own the copyright. And it seems only fair that I should earn money from this. As a musician and songwriter in the band All Our Exes Live in Texas, I am also a small business, doing Business Activity Statements every quarter, just like a plumber would. We have book-keepers and accountants just like your friend from Jim's Mowing would. We pay wages to contractors and do all the things a small business would. We pay taxes, and contribute to society, like hundreds of thousands of small businesses.