source : the age
Pop musician Kirrilee Broughton was trying to promote her new single by putting up posters when she was hit with an $814 fine from the City of Melbourne.
Broughton put up posters advertising her new single, Janelle, around Swanston Street on poles and other areas where she says there were other posters.
The posters said “Alex, I know you’re cheating on Janelle. The evidence doesn’t lie”, with a QR code that linked to her song.
“I know a lot of musicians who put up posters,” she says. “I just didn’t think anything of it.”
Broughton says she was shocked to receive an infringement notice from the City of Melbourne.
Broughton says the $814 fine is more than her weekly income from waitressing.
“This is an insane amount of money for me,” Broughton says. “At a time right now when Music Victoria is running these campaigns encouraging people to support and vote for Australian music, it just feels so contradictory to be penalising musicians for trying to promote their work.”
She posted about her experience on social media and received support from other musicians.
Fiona Duncan, chief executive of Music Victoria, says discoverability is a real issue for live music.
“One of the biggest challenges for artists and venues right now is simply letting people know what’s on and connecting with audiences,” Duncan says.
She says social media is increasingly difficult and expensive to cut through on, and posters have traditionally been an affordable way for emerging artists, venues and independent promoters to get the word out.
“For a city that is rightly proud of its status as one of the world’s great music cities, we should be looking at how we help artists navigate the rules and provide more affordable, legal and visible ways for them to promote their music and their shows,” she says. “We want artists putting on shows, building audiences and contributing to Melbourne’s music culture, and we should be making it easier for audiences to discover them.”
A spokesman for the City of Melbourne says council officers are permitted to remove illegal signage and issue fines for unauthorised installations or obstructions in public spaces under the City of Melbourne’s Activities Local Law 2024.
“Penalty units are used to define the amount payable for local law fines and are fixed by the state government,” he says.
Broughton says she knows she did the wrong thing but thinks the size of the fine is disproportionate. She is on a payment plan to try to pay off the fine and has just paid her first instalment of $81.14.
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