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See Hear

A proposed national arts scheme to benefit Australian arts and education

By David Maegraith, @DavidMaegraith

The Challenges

1. Australian visual and music artists struggle to build awareness of, and revenue from, their art.

2. Australian students of visual arts and music often do not have the chance to promote their works.

The Facts

Australian big businesses use visual arts and music in their operations, primarily through the use of

stock photos and artwork, and music for on hold and presentations.

However, the vast majority of stock image sites are American, with images produced by

Americans. (For example, iStockphoto)

The Solution

‘See Hear’ is a proposed scheme to harvest the funds that big Australian businesses already pay for

the use of visual arts and music, to distribute to struggling Australian visual and music artists via a

clever, yet simple and professional scheme.

How it would work

Australian businesses regularly pay artists for their work, for example in the form of stock photos

from websites, to use in marketing materials, and a licence fee to APRA to use music on hold.

Currently businesses are not required to source artwork from Australian artists, and this is where

See Hear would change the landscape.

See Hear is a simple proposal that would involve setting up a large, professionally-managed online

stock library of Australian-only visual artwork – photos, illustrations, videos – and music.

The website would be public and open to anyone in the world to pay to download the artwork;

however Australian large businesses and government agencies would have a special incentive to get

behind the scheme.

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Incentive for large Australian businesses and government agencies to support See Hear

As many large businesses and agencies use on hold facilities, these companies and agencies would

be legislated to contribute to See Hear in the form of an annual licence to use Australian-only music

on hold for a fee of $1,000,000 per year.

APRA or a similar agency would be tasked and resourced to administer the music delivery and fee

administration to ensure only suitable music would be used on hold, and the licence fee is properly

managed.

However, large companies and agencies will be able to recoup a sizeable portion of their annual fee

through this simple agreement:

Stock images purchased on See Hear will credit towards the annual music use fee

For example, Company A pays the $1m fee to enable all Australian music on hold for a year for their

phone system. This could be set up to be paid quarterly at $250,000. So at the start of the year

Company A pays $250,000.

During the first quarter of the year, Company A decides to purchase stock images from See Hear to a

total of $10,000. (Note this is not an unrealistic figure – often companies and agencies will pay

hundreds of dollars per image from US stock image libraries.)

See Hear pays the Australian artist/s a commission for use of their downloaded images.

Then, a portion – for example 50 per cent – will be credited towards Company A next music on hold

fee instalment of $250,000. In other words, Australian companies and government agencies are

benefiting both Australian visual, and music artists.

A win for all stakeholders!

A note on the music section of See Hear

Of course, only a small percent of Australian-made music is suitable for use on hold. Therefore, it is

proposed that the distribution of the music on hold licence fee is made equitably to all musicians

who are represented in the See Hear library, regardless of whether their music is used on hold.

See Hear is for living artists over 18

The scheme would primarily be instigated to ease the living pressure on Australian artists aged over

18. Therefore, it is proposed that See Hear only lists Australian artwork – visual or music – created in

the last 10 years, by a still-living artist.

Sample Budget

Revenue goal $100m = $1m music license fee x 100 companies or government agencies

Expenses: See Hear platform, staff and maintenance, royalties to Australian artists

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See Hear for Students

This scheme is also for Australian visual art students and musicians in learning. Australian artists

under 18 years old would still be able to create and upload artwork to See Hear, and sell the works

at market price, however revenue from student sales would be split between their school or college,

and artists over 18 registered on the site.

This would have the twin benefits of:

1. Giving incentive for Australian schools to encourage arts students to contribute to See Hear,

as it benefits the school financially; and

2. Further benefits Australian artists over 18, in addition to the revenue they earn from their

own artwork sales on the site

Appendix –list of large Australian companies that could support See Hear

Electricity Suppliers

ActewAGL

Energy Australia

TRUenergy

AGL

APG

Country Energy

Integral Energy

Origin Energy

Power Direct

Red Energy

Ergon Energy

Queensland Energy

Simply Energy

South Australia Electricity

Aurora Energy

Click Energy

Neighbourhood Energy

Victoria Electricity

Banks

AMP Bank Limited

ANZ

Bank of Queensland Limited

Bank of Melbourne

Bank of Sydney

Bank SA

Bank of Western Australia

CUA Bank

Defence Bank

Delphi Bank Australia

Heritage Bank

bankmecu

Bendigo and Adelaide Bank

Commonwealth Bank

Rural Bank Limited

Macquarie Bank Limited

Members Equity Bank Pvt

Mystate

National Australia Bank

Queensland Teachers

Mutual Bank (QTMB)

St. George Bank Limited

Suncorp-Metway Limited

UBank,

Westpac

Newcastle Permanent

Teachers Mutual Bank

Telecomms

amaysim

Bendigo Bank Telco

Boost Mobile

CMOBILE

Dodo

Hello Mobile

IF Telecom

iiNet

Kogan Mobile

Lebara Mobile

Live Connected

Optus

OzLinked

SpinTel

Telstra

TPG

Vaya

Virgin Mobile

Vodafone

Yatango Mobile

Others

Australia Post

TNT

DHL

Couriers Please

Fastway Couriers

Public Transport Victoria

Adelaide Metro

Department of Transport

[NT]

Metro Tasmania

Transport for NSW

Public Transport Authority

of Western Australia

Centrelink

ATO

Medicare

Immigration