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SYDNEY, Australia — Following years of intensive lobbying by the music industry, a victory in the fight on radio “caps”.
In Australia, the so-called “cap” prevents the recording industry from negotiating a new, higher rate on those sound recording royalties paid by commercial radio, a sum fixed at 1% of gross industry revenue, and legislated in the 1968 Copyright Act.
Currently, commercial radio pays an industry-wide license fee of 0.4%. That comes to roughly A$4.4 million ($2.94 million), from an industry earning around A$1 billion in annual advertising revenue, according to PPCA, the not-for-profit collecting society that licenses businesses and broadcasters to play commercially-released sound recordings. In the separate case of the publicly-funded Australian Broadcasting Corporation, the cap is 0.5 cents per head of population, for a total annual sum of just A$125,000 ($84,000).
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In the final weeks of 2025, a breakthrough with the Copyright Tribunal of Australia’s determination setting a new commercial radio sound recording broadcast license rate of 0.55 per cent of gross industry revenue, up from 0.4 per cent. In real terms, that’s a 38 per cent lift.
The Tribunal’s decision was published after the music industry, through PPCA, and Commercial Radio & Audio (CRA) came to a loggerhead in mid-2023 on a license scheme, ending more than 20 years of rolling content agreements. Soon after, David Pocock, the former Wallabies rugby union captain-turned independent senator, introduced the Fair Pay for Radio Play Bill, which sought to remove the caps from legislation.
“Such caps do not exist for any other type of copyright in Australia,” Pocock said at the time, as he championed a bill that was supported by ARIA and PPCA, the Association of Artist Managers (AAM) and the Australian Independent Record Labels (AIR) and other organizations.
CRA had opposed any changes, warning that additional costs were a “threat” to the sustainability of regional radio.
In its decision, which can be found here, the new rate will be backdated to July 1, 2023 and reflects the Tribunal’s findings on changes in the broadcasting and music landscape, including the growth of digital radio and the expanded usage of works PPCA represents.
The music industry is celebrating a battle won, but the war goes on. The 1 per cent cap remains stubbornly in place.
“We have secured more royalties for local artists, but the Tribunal’s ruling proves definitively that we cannot negotiate a fair market rate for artists while the statutory 1 per cent cap remains in place,” comments PPCA CEO Annabelle Herd, in a statement issued today, Jan. 14.
“The Tribunal’s reasoning makes it clear, in no uncertain terms, that the 1 per cent cap was a decisive factor throughout the decision and has constricted Australian artists’ ability to receive sound recording broadcast royalties comparable to other markets. Caps are referenced repeatedly throughout the decision, at least 140 times in fact, and the 1 per cent cap is described as a fixed and enduring part of the landscape.”
CRA reckons the result is a lose-lose.
“PPCA have claimed victory due to an increase in the rate payable by Australian radio. The facts tell a different story,” a spokesperson tells Mumbrella.
“The 38% achieved is in stark contrast to the enormous 150% increase they were seeking from the vast majority of stations. This outcome could have been achieved through negotiation which would have avoided costly legal fees for both parties.”
“This result places further cost pressure on the sustainability of Australia’s local radio industry who have a long history of proudly supporting Australian music and will continue to do so.”
According to the PPCA’s Herd, the industry will continue its fight. “It is now up to Government and the Parliament to lift this deeply unfair and arbitrary cap,” she says.
