Workplace & Legal Rights for Australian Musicians

Music is work, and work comes with contracts, conditions and the occasional dispute. You do not have to navigate that alone. Here are the national resources that protect musicians on the legal and workplace side.

Free and low-cost legal advice: Arts Law

The Arts Law Centre of Australia is the go-to for musicians on legal questions: "Arts Law gives free or low-cost legal advice to artists and arts organisations all over Australia on a wide range of arts-related legal and business issues. Such matters include contracts, copyright, moral rights, trade marks, business names and structures, defamation, insurance and employment."

The telephone service is means-tested but free for eligible individual artists: "The telephone legal advice service (TLA) is free for individual artists on arts related matters provided they satisfy our means test." Arts Law also publishes a Music Industry Legal Pack with contract templates and checklists.

Your pay and conditions: the Live Performance Award

When you are engaged as an employee, your minimum pay and conditions come from the Live Performance Award (MA000081), enforced by the Fair Work Commission. The Fair Work Ombudsman publishes a plain-English pay guide updated each financial year.

Union support: Musicians Australia

Musicians Australia (part of the MEAA) offers members support on unpaid fees, contracts and workplace issues, and sets the $250 minimum fee benchmark that underpins fair-pay conversations across the country.

Safer workplaces

Support Act publishes practical workplace guides, including a Guide to Safer Workplaces and a Guide to Sexual Misconduct, Bullying & Discrimination — useful whether you are a solo artist or run a small team.