Gym industry to fight Copyright Tribunal decision

The gym industry has decided to fight a decision by the Copyright Tribunal after being slugged a huge increase in license fees to play music while people exercise.

Fitness Australia says it has filed an appeal against the decision in May which increased the current license fee of 96.8 cents per fitness class, capped at $2,654 a year, to $15 per class. Gyms say this could increase costs by up to $25,000 per year and would threaten the viability of smaller, independent gyms.

The recording industry argues that artists have been underpaid for too long and gyms have been getting away without paying their fair share.

Fitness Australia chief executive Lauretta Stace told SmartCompany this morning that the recording industry will lose out under a “maximum fee” approach.

She said gyms were now playing music free of copyright to avoid fees, mainly cover versions of well-known songs. “They will end up with less fees so we are hoping the tribunal will take a more sensible approach.”

She says she does not know when the appeal will be heard. “We have good grounds for an appeal but limited scope. They will have to look at narrow legal matters and then make a call.”

Fernwood chief executive Diana Williams says in a previous interview with SmartCompany that it would be a huge increase for running a health club but the costs would not be passed onto customers.

“We have to go down the royalty-free format because we don’t want our members to pay more money.”

“We chose not to push those costs onto consumers, because we think Fernwood’s attraction is the fun environment, not the loud thumping music.”