The 2025 APRA Music Awards took place in Melbourne last week, with Marrickville’s Lazybones Lounge Restaurant & Bar taking out the Licensee of the Year Award.
As well as celebrating music creators the awards have more recently sought to acknowledge the organisations and businesses that recognise the value of music to culture, community and business sustainability.
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, said “Lazybones’ commitment to music creators is so great given live music revenue and venues are still below pre-COVID levels – a staggering $600m 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.”
Lazybones hosts live music almost every night of the week and owners Craig Pietersen and Alexandra Heffernan expressed their delight at winning the award.
“We’re thrilled to be Licensee of the Year, thank you for recognising venues and the work that goes into keeping the music alive,” the pair said.
APRA AMCOS is advocating for a live music tax offset to incentivise venues, festivals, and artists to keep live music on stage and audiences coming back.
In a statement the company said: “A commissioned study recently found that a combined venue tax offset (of five per cent 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 $205m per year with an additional 203,200 gigs.”
The full list of winners at the 2025 APRA Music Awards is available here.