As a mission-driven social enterprise and platform co-operative, The Pack prioritises authentic connections between Musicians, Listeners and Businesses for the purpose of creating a healthy music ecology. It’s built on a cooperative that prioritises fairness for creators, not profit for CEOs, investors, labels and shareholders.

By using geo-fencing technology (or “virtual perimeters”) The Pack will stream tracks made locally to a Listener / Business, leading to the discovery of local, original musicians, and to realised exposure and attendance at local gigs and events.

The Pack further promotes connections between Business and Listeners by notifying local music lovers of when they are in a Pack streaming business, allowing Listeners to interact with the business’ playlists, and to access localised rewards. This innovation anticipates increased customer retention and spend at Pack streaming businesses, generating supportive business patronage, and allows for valuable localised cultural and economic data sharing with local and State government.

To start with, until The Pack amasses a significant volume of local music, there’s not a huge value in creating highly localised virtual perimeters – so we’ll focus on getting WA made music to our WA businesses and listeners. We’ll only be geofencing for preference / priority. Effectively this will mean that artists who are local (to a venue) will be played first.

The real value of geolocation is that we will create much more localised visibility for our WA artists. Listeners will be notified when they are near Pack businesses / venues / artists / gigs local to them and will know that they can interact with these opportunities, as part of their music community. They will also be able to also choose to receive notifications for new music, gigs, merch releases, events and exclusive happenings from local artists that they have interacted with.

Our business model is completely different to the major streaming services. We’re using a 1:1 creator-consumer model – meaning that each subscription goes directly to the artists that a member has streamed, as a percentage of that subscription. We can’t know exactly how this will play out for individual artists at this time – but we can guarantee them 70% of revenues, forever.

Yes. The Pack will allow artists to promote themselves directly to businesses and to recommend themselves for business playlists via the app. Artists will also be recommended to businesses by listeners (and other artists). Artists will be able to use their localised streaming statistics to pitch for gigs in local venues (and even potentially in unusual businesses – like shoe stores and hairdressers – who might enjoy small gigs as promotional opportunities).

No. The Pack makes absolutely no exclusivity impositions on artists - they can upload their music anywhere they like! We just believe that they will receive better returns (both financial and audience development) from our 'small and local is beautiful' system than they will from the global streaming services.

Firstly – there are no costly aggregators. Artists control the distribution of their music via direct upload. The music will be vetted for sound quality / compatibility purposes only, and then curated into business specific playlists appropriate to genre and demographic information. Secondly – it’s free for artists forever (no aggregator fees). Thirdly - our cooperative rules, and the cooperative principles enshrine fairness in our policy and practice.

We believe that all artists should have their unique compositions registered with their appropriate music licensing body – in Australia this is APRA AMCOS. We also believe that our artists should be members of the MEAA - Musicians Australia. The Pack does not provide any legal / copyright protection for music, so to ensure that their music remains their property, we would suggest that all artists protect their copyright, and themselves. The Pack is streaming, not licensing, nor legal, so we cannot be held responsible for content - only for where it gets played, and how you get (directly) paid.

Yes. Artists hold their copyright. The Pack has no right to ownership nor exclusivity. We don’t believe in creating barriers for artists, rather, we believe in smashing them down. Musicians also own the Co-op. They can do with their music anything they choose. The Pack is streaming – not management / agency / label – so while we can’t represent artists directly, we can help them grow their audience and reach.

To answer this we will describe the pro-rata business model of the major music streaming services very bluntly and basically. Most MSS’ divide the monthly streams of an artist’s work by the total number of streams on the entire platform for that month, then multiply that number by the total monthly revenues, keeping approximately 30% for themselves.

If an artist is signed, labels, publishers, and distributors then pay the artist according to their royalty deals, which generally are less than 50%, most hovering around 16%, even for major artists, which we think is, in short, exploitative.

Most of the major streaming services send around 70% of total revenues to the 3 major labels, and Merlin. But unrepresented, unsigned artists are largely invisible, not having major marketing dollars behind them to influence playlists or rise above the noise of the label backed cohort.

Basically, we think it’s a rigged system that benefits labels, shareholders and multi-billionaire CEOs – but not the individual content creator. Our system aims to challenge that. So, we’re only working with unsigned artists (or those signed to minor independent labels who are willing to do their own negotiations on their distribution platforms) to make sure that they are heard and supported by the streaming system.

There are a number of answers for this, all based around equity and visibility for the unsigned artist.

In the main, we will work to generate economic (and flow on mental health benefits) for local, original musicians by directing significant revenues (70%) directly to artists via direct 1:1 creator-consumer relationships.

In this model each listener or business subscription is divided directly among the artists they stream, rather than the pro-rata business model mentioned in the previous question / answer.

The remaining 30% of revenue will support The Pack’s technology evolution, curation, expansion - and commitment to supporting, recording and curating and including female identifying, First Nations, CALD and LGBTQI+ musicians via an NFP Cultural Organisation.

The only point at which we will not be able to keep your music on The Pack is if you are signed to a label (major or independent) and are unable to negotiate with your label to be able to do so at no cost to The Pack.

The Pack is intentionally small and locally focused—and we can't afford legal battles with big labels or to represent artists in licencing disputes—so we ask that our artists manage their negotiations themselves (we will already have to pay OneMusic fees to create a system that is designed to protect and support our artists).

If you do get signed to an independent label, and they are willing to sign off on allowing you to keep your previously released catalogue on The Pack at no cost to us, your wonderful content can stay as long as it likes! In fact, we'd love that!

Not a cent! As a member of the co-op, you are both the creators of the content that drives the system and the owners of the system itself. It costs you nothing to become a Pack Music Cooperative member, and you can upload as many (professionally recorded) tracks as you like, for free, forever!

We will be giving artists on the system the opportunity to pay a small annual membership fee ($40) to have a Pack Music Cooperative Artist Page (from which they will be able to sell music, merch and gig tix, develop and engage with their community and promote their upcoming events - with minimal intervention from middle-men who would take percentages of their earnings). We're even partnering with a new ethical ticketing business to help you make more money from gig ticket sales.

Yes. In Australia businesses must have a licence to play recorded music on their premises, regardless of what music streaming service or medium they are using to play it.

However, as The Pack is designed to profile and support Australian made music, and this is also one of the core values of APRA AMCOS, we intend to communicate with the licencing body on a partnership opportunity to support Australian unsigned musicians. 

Yes. This applies to all streaming services – regardless of business model. However, as The Pack is providing a very different service to the major streaming services, we do intend to negotiate with APRA AMCOS on this. 

This is the ethical AI/machine learning aspect of The Pack’s novel system. While initially The Pack will curate ‘business-type-specific’ playlists to start the ball rolling—these will evolve with customer interactions—meaning that Pack listener members can interact with and influence Pack business member playlists.

The system will also ‘recognise’ the playlists of member listeners as they enter a business, and business playlists will evolve on the basis of what their clients enjoy. So, over time, no one business should have the same playlist as another (unless they have exactly the same clientele, which seems unlikely).

Pack businesses will not be required to participate in the rewards programme—however, we think it’s a mutually beneficial way for businesses, clients, and artists to interact for the common good!

Rewards will be set by businesses as an incentive given to listeners who use The Pack app on their premises and interact with their playlists.

Customers can earn Pack tokens/coins when they interact with a business’ playlist in store and can redeem those for anything that business determines to be a fair exchange.

As we are all part of the co-op, and fairness and equity are our primary goal, the relationship needs to be mutually beneficial, i.e., a cafe might offer a free coffee for every 10 playlist recommendations or tracks scheduled in store, a hairdresser might give a discounted service, pubs might give a beer or food discount for Pack members, etc. However, The Pack sets no minimum or maximum value for rewards.

Our listeners are critical to the success of The Pack. Listeners are our largest contributing membership group, who provide the funds via their monthly membership to support artists to create and distribute their music.

Our listeners are also our taste-makers, interacting with business playlists, creating client-curated spaces, and helping local businesses to design the ambience and atmospherics of their business premises with their clients in mind.

Aside from the obvious value of being able to discover the hottest new local music, without undue interference, much of which is not available on any other streaming service, there are a range of other interesting innovations in the works to help our local music lovers feel like a connected part of the wider music community.

Local music lovers will be able to get notified of the upcoming gigs, new releases, merch releases and special events from their most loved local artists. They will be able to interact within the Pack music community.

Listeners will be notified when they are near a Pack business, so they are the first to know which businesses in their favourite places to work and play are supporting the local music community.

Listeners will be able to make recommendations to business playlists, and in many spaces, queue music via an in-app ‘jukebox’ style game, puling their own music preferences into the business playlists for a small fee, which in turn supports artists and businesses. They will earn rewards for their interactions, which can be redeemed in store for awesome local rewards.

They will earn fan badges demonstrating their support for local musicians, and be able to redeem these for discounted tickets and exclusive opportunities from their favourite artists.

The Pack Music Co-operative is seeking to partner with local governments in a powerful patronage relationship to co-create sustainability across the local arts and business economies.

The patronage of local governments will support the development and local marketing of this novel streaming and sharing marketplace for local, original, unsigned music, providing a sustainable scaffolding for artists before they enter the noisy, crowded global streaming space.

The Pack understands that local governments are not all the same. In fact, one of The Pack's founders is a long-serving local government sustainability professional, having worked at four WA local governments and WALGA.

The Pack is offering a tiered, per capita patron membership model to local governments to ensure that all local governments, no matter how large or small, can support and grow their local music industry and arts economy.

Local government patron memberships are based on population size and range from $1000 per annum for Councils with under 5000 people, to $35,000 for Councils with over 200,000.

As part of their patronage, local governments are asked to actively promote The Pack throughout their business, arts and local communities, and receive a content marketing assets pack and support from The Pack's marketing team to enable this

De-identified location-specific data will be available to local governments to support effective cultural investment and arts/tourism and local economic growth. Beyond that, local governments will be playing a major part in supporting and developing the sustainable arts economies in their cities and regions and facilitating sustainable revenues for their local music community. They will be participating in an important move towards local place planning and curation, which has been proven to lead to more vibrant, connected communities that take pride in their precincts.

The Pack is based on a hybrid model that works like this: Company (Pty Ltd) + (Platform) Cooperative + Not-For-Profit Cultural Organisation.

The Company owns and protects the music streaming technology and intellectual property.

The cooperative manages and supports its membership and subscriptions. The company licences the music streaming technology.

The NFP (in development) will be philanthropic—a grant-making entity to support the preservation of the unique sound of our local music community and the recording of female-identifying, First Nations, CaLD and LGBTQI+ music and musicians.

Co-ops are owned by their members—not by billionaire CEOs, shareholders, and investors—so decisions made on how to distribute the prosperity of the co-op are made by its Board and its members—musicians. This also applies to decisions about how the co-op evolves and the way it is managed.

Using a co-op model means that our members (musicians) own the distribution of their creative content and are actively involved in the success of and the evolution of the streaming service itself. They are also actively engaged in building the community—as the healthier it is, the more viable the platform is for them.

Co-ops don’t have owners—they have members. The Pack has a 12-member Board of Directors. All business decisions are made by the Board, but all of our musicians, listeners, and businesses are members of some type (either full member or associate).

The Co-op Rules set out these parameters. Full members have voting rights and can influence the development of the Pack and make recommendations to the Board and broader membership. The ratified Cooperative Rules can be found here.