Inner west Sydney venue Lazybones secures national music award
Marrickville’s Lazybones Lounge Restaurant & Bar located in Sydney’s inner west secured the Licensee of the Year Award at the 2025 APRA Music Awards held in Melbourne last week.
The Awards event now in its 43rd year celebrates not only talented music creators but more recently organisations and businesses who recognise the value of music to culture, community and business sustainability.
The Licensee of the Year Award, as decided by APRA's Board of Writer and Publisher Directors, is designed to reward licensee groups for good music citizenship. The recommended recipient is selected against the criteria of consistent compliance and demonstrated support of music such as the presentation of local content or innovative use of music.
Lazybones host live music almost every night of the week and has become an iconic part of Sydney's cultural life.
Craig Pietersen and Alexandra Heffernan, owners of Lazybones Lounge Restaurant & Bar enthused “we’re thrilled to be Licensee of the Year, thank you for recognising venues and the work that goes into keeping the music alive.”
OneMusic is the joint music licensing initiative of APRA AMCOS and PPCA which formed in 2019.
Catherine Giuliano, Director of OneMusic, providers of public performance licences to Australian venues noted "Lazybones' commitment to music creators is so great given live music revenue and venues are still below pre-COVID levels - a staggering $600million in estimated lost income for artists since the 2019 financial year. Alex and Craig are going above and beyond by fostering such a musician-friendly environment, showing they respect and support live performers".
APRA AMCOS are advocating for a live music tax offset to incentivise venues, festivals, and artists to keep live music on stage and audiences coming back. A commissioned study recently found that a combined venue tax offset (of 5% of expenses for current live music venues and $12,000 in expenses for those not currently hosting) would boost the incomes of musicians and artists by $205 million per year with an additional 203,200 gigs.
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