Layer 05 · One voice
A musician negotiating alone does not really negotiate; the terms arrive pre-written, take them or leave them. Small operators who team up can speak as one, and Australian law already holds a door open for exactly that.
The lawful route
Since 2021, Australia's competition regulator has provided a standing route called a class exemption: a standing permission that removes the usual competition-law risk. Normally, separate businesses agreeing together on the terms they will accept can risk breaking competition law (the rules that stop businesses ganging up on the public). The class exemption switches that risk off for small operators, so a group of small businesses and independent contractors can team up and negotiate as one with a business of any size. Musicians qualify.
The notice that starts a group is a single page, about the length of a set list.
There is no fee to lodge it.
The exemption runs to 2030, which leaves years to use it well.
Each member's turnover (total sales, not profit) stays under A$10 million a year. Most working musicians pass under that bar with room to spare.
The asks
Each counterpart (the business on the other side of the table) hears a different set of asks. None of these are demands for special treatment; each one asks for terms a maker can read, plan around and compare.
A distributor is the service that puts your song on Spotify and Apple Music. A table could ask that your catalogue stays live when you cancel; that add-ons can be cancelled by a plain, documented route; that nothing trains on your uploads without your permission; and that fees sit where buyers can compare them.
A table could ask for a way to challenge an AI label you think is wrong; for the service to say when and why a track is left out of recommendations; and for due process (notice, reasons and a chance to respond) before royalties are withheld.
A table could ask for published fees, so the cost of the door is knowable before the show is booked, and for terms that let small events breathe rather than terms sized for stadiums.
The mechanism
Anyone who joins the ecosystem can say they want a seat at a table. No group exists at this point; a list of willing hands does.
It forms around the clearest shared ask: the one thing the most members want changed, stated in one sentence.
The form goes to the regulator. From that point the group can lawfully negotiate as one.
The counterpart receives the asks on paper, and the same asks are published for anyone to read.
What happens next depends on the counterpart. Pick an outcome:
The group negotiates with one voice instead of thousands of separate whispers. Whatever is agreed is published, so every member, and every maker who joins later, can see exactly what the table won.
A counterpart can decline to negotiate; the exemption permits the asking, it does not compel an answer. The group and its asks remain on the public record either way, and public records move slower minds.
Alongside, not instead
For gigs, pay floors and insurance, there is already a union wing for musicians. Membership costs about A$196.57 a year and includes public liability insurance (cover if someone is injured at your show). Its minimum gig fee of A$250 for publicly funded events is recognised by seven states and territories.
The table complements that work on the business side: distributors, streaming services, ticketing. Nothing here competes with it.
A table negotiates best with the facts laid out first. The Terms Table holds the fine print side by side, with sources linked; the Rights Engine holds the rules, quoted and cited.