City of Parramatta provides five venues with subsidised music licences

City of Parramatta in Sydney is encouraging five of its venues to feature music through a new initiative.

It will fund a free one-year APRA AMCOS Public Performance licence under the city’s ‘Amplify’ program.

The licence allows successful venues to play recorded music, contract live music performances and operate live music programs under the guidance and support of the City of Parramatta’s live music coordinator.

“Over the past few years, the live music scene has greatly expanded in Parramatta,” points out lord mayor Andrew Wilson.

“As an ongoing business and artist brokering program, the ‘Amplify’ initiative has been successful in connecting businesses with musicians, driving patronage, and increasing the customer offering through the introduction of live music.

“We are delighted to be working closely with local businesses as they optimise their live performance programs under the subsidised licence, and wish the successful recipients every bit of success as they roll them out in the year ahead.”

The five venues are:

• Collector Tavern
• Port Bar
• Novotel Sydney
• Alex and Co
• Coco Cubano

They were selected after a month-long expression of interest process.

APRA AMCOS chief executive officer Dean Ormston said, “Music has the undeniable power to lift a venue’s atmosphere and create an enjoyable space for family and friends, encouraging them to stay longer, consume more and tell more of their friends.”

“Our restaurants/café licence scheme not only allows venues to legally play, record and perform live music but opens up performance opportunities for our members, and grows employment in jobs associated with creating and installing live music and servicing the music audiences.”