The Musicians' Union of Australia (MUA), formerly Professional Musicians' Union of Australia, is a trade union covering a range of occupations in the
music industry
The music industry are individuals and organizations that earn money by Songwriter, writing songs and musical compositions, creating and selling Sound recording and reproduction, recorded music and sheet music, presenting live music, concerts, ...
in Australia. it was founded in March 1911. In some records over its early years it was also referred to as the Musicians' Union of Australasia.
History
Several bodies were precursors to the Musicians' Union of Australia:
*The Professional Orchestral Benefit Association, founded in 1897 was renamed the Professional Musicians' Benefit Association of Australasia on 10 April 1899, and again on 8 July 1901, to the Professional Musicians' Association of Australasia (PMAA).
*The Professional Orchestral Musicians' Union of Australia and the PMAA together created the Amalgamated Musicians' Union of Australasia in August 1902, but the PMAA continued to exist as a separate body.
*After handing over an agreed amount of money to the recently formed Professional Musicians' Union of Australasia on 8 April 1907, the PMAA was dissolved on 9 September 1907, with its assets transferring to the Professional Musicians' Club (which had been registered as an
association
Association may refer to:
*Club (organization), an association of two or more people united by a common interest or goal
*Trade association, an organization founded and funded by businesses that operate in a specific industry
*Voluntary associatio ...
with
limited liability
Limited liability is a legal status in which a person's financial Legal liability, liability is limited to a fixed sum, most commonly the value of a person's investment in a corporation, company, or joint venture. If a company that provides limi ...
on 11 June that year).
The body was registered as a trade union on 13 March 1911. The word "Professional" was dropped from the name at some point before 1912, although both Musicians' Union of Australasia and its final form, Musicians' Union of Australia, exist in records until around 1916. In August 1961 the union was renamed the Professional Musicians' Union of Australia, reverting to its original name in 1975.
[
The organisation was made up of state districts, some of which were further divided into smaller branches. ]Western Australia
Western Australia (WA) is the westernmost state of Australia. It is bounded by the Indian Ocean to the north and west, the Southern Ocean to the south, the Northern Territory to the north-east, and South Australia to the south-east. Western Aust ...
only formally joined the union in March 1962, although it did send representatives to some of the meetings in the early years.[
]
Description
The Musicians' Union of Australia (MUA) represents musicians, music librarian Music librarianship is the area of librarianship that pertains to music collections and their development, cataloging, preservation and maintenance, as well as reference issues connected with musical works and music literature. Music librarians ofte ...
s, copyist
A copyist is a person who makes duplications of the same thing. The modern use of the term is mainly confined to music copyists, who are employed by the music industry to produce neat copies from a composer or arranger's manuscript. However, the ...
s, composers, vocalists and musical arrangers.[ It states that it does not represent "the interests of managers, agents, ]venues
A venue is the location at which an event takes place. It may refer to:
Locations
* Venue (law), the place a case is heard
* Financial trading venue, a place or system where financial transactions can occur
* Music venue, place used for a conce ...
, publishers
Publishing is the activities of making information, literature, music, software, and other content, physical or digital, available to the public for sale or free of charge. Traditionally, the term publishing refers to the creation and distribu ...
and record companies
"Big Three" music labels
A record label or record company is a brand or trademark of music recordings and music videos, or the company that owns it. Sometimes, a record label is also a publishing company that manages such brands and t ...
", but solely those of musicians.[ It provides advice on matters such as ]copyright
A copyright is a type of intellectual property that gives its owner the exclusive legal right to copy, distribute, adapt, display, and perform a creative work, usually for a limited time. The creative work may be in a literary, artistic, ...
, minimum award rates, and contracts.
The MMUA was affiliated with the ACTU
The Australian Council of Trade Unions (ACTU), originally the Australasian Council of Trade Unions, is the largest peak body representing workers in Australia. It is a national trade union centre of 46 affiliated trade union, unions and eight t ...
, the Victorian Labor Party
The Victorian Labor Party, officially known as the Australian Labor Party (Victorian Branch) and commonly referred to simply as Victorian Labor, is the Victorian state branch of the Australian Labor Party (ALP). The party forms the incumbent go ...
, NSW Labor Party and Western Australian Labor Party
The Western Australian Labor Party, officially known as WA Labor, is the Western Australian branch of the Australian Labor Party (ALP). It is the current governing party of Western Australia since winning the 2017 state election under Mark McGo ...
and the International Federation of Musicians
The International Federation of Musicians (, FIM) is a global union federation bringing together trade unions representing music performers. FIM counts member unions in 70 countries and three regional groups in Europe, Africa and Latin America. I ...
(FIM),[ although these are not mentioned on its website,]MEAA
The Media, Entertainment & Arts Alliance (MEAA) is the Australian trade union and professional organisation which covers the media industry, media, entertainment industry, entertainment, sports and arts industries.
Its Musicians section consis ...
as member organisation for Australia.
There are branches in Melbourne
Melbourne ( , ; Boonwurrung language, Boonwurrung/ or ) is the List of Australian capital cities, capital and List of cities in Australia by population, most populous city of the States and territories of Australia, Australian state of Victori ...
, Sydney
Sydney is the capital city of the States and territories of Australia, state of New South Wales and the List of cities in Australia by population, most populous city in Australia. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Syd ...
, Adelaide
Adelaide ( , ; ) is the list of Australian capital cities, capital and most populous city of South Australia, as well as the list of cities in Australia by population, fifth-most populous city in Australia. The name "Adelaide" may refer to ei ...
, Hobart
Hobart ( ) is the capital and most populous city of the island state of Tasmania, Australia. Located in Tasmania's south-east on the estuary of the River Derwent, it is the southernmost capital city in Australia. Despite containing nearly hal ...
, Launceston and Brisbane
Brisbane ( ; ) is the List of Australian capital cities, capital and largest city of the States and territories of Australia, state of Queensland and the list of cities in Australia by population, third-most populous city in Australia, with a ...
.[
]
Governance
The governing authority of the organisation is its Federal Council, comprising the federal office-bearers and the members of all Branch Committees. It is also governed by a Federal Executive. The federal office-bearers and members of the branch committees are elected every three years, with elections across the organisation conducted by the Australian Electoral Commission
The Australian Electoral Commission (AEC) is the independent statutory agency of the Australian Government responsible for the management and oversight of Australian federal elections, plebiscites, referendums and some trade union
A ...
.
References
Further reading
*
External links
*{{official, https://musiciansunion.com.au/
1911 establishments in Australia
Australian Council of Trade Unions
Australian music industry
Entertainment industry unions
Musicians' trade unions
Trade unions established in 1911
Trade unions in Australia