Voting for the 2006 APRA Music Awards Song of the Year is now open. Simply visit www.apra.com.au and click on Awards Central. Once in Awards Central click on VOTE NOW and follow the steps provided.

Each year Nescafé Big Break gives away cash grants to people aged between 16 and 24, who have a dream or idea and need some financial support to make it a reality. It is not an achievement award and anyone can win the grants. There are no categories and winners can be from any field

Freedom Writers is a competition run by Amnesty International Australia, NSW Human Rights and Security Network and is designed to give amateur, unpublished, and recreational writers an outlet to express their individual concepts in a creative context whilst drawing attention to human rights abuses and humanitarian polemics. The competition is open to all ages: Writers

Congrats to all APRA PDA winners especially Sarah Kelly from NSW, who receieved the Big Day Out Contemporary Music Endowment. With the endowment Sarah plans to write more material for theredsunband and expand her skills through cowriting with other Australian songwriters. – Good luck with the writing Sarah.

January 1, 2006 represented a new dawn for the Australian media and arts industries. Learning about the effects and consequences of changes to defamation laws is of vital importance. Will the new Defamation Act 2005 make any difference? What are the day to day implications for journalists, writers, film-makers and bloggers? The Arts Law Centre

For those who have recently joined us, MusicNSW is working with AON trying to get cheaper insurance premiums for NSW bands and artists. To do this we need to group a HUGE collection of people together to apply at the same time. We are calling this The MusicNSW Blanket Public Liability Program. To get started

As celebrations get underway for National Youth Week, Indent – The Hub for All-ages Entertainment in NSW is pleased to announce the winners of the Indent Awards, acknowledging young event organisers positive contributions to their community. The Indent Awards recognise and celebrate the achievements of young event promoters who engage in creating drug and alcohol-free

The Buzz youth music program is part of the Australian Goverment’s Young And Emerging Initiative. It offers flexible support for young (26 years old and under) musicians, sound artists and music related arts workers through grants with the fixed amout of $2,500. It provides funding for performing, recording, professional development and creating new work. More

Indent will launch its Summer edition of the Word Of Mouth zine next week. The issue features interviews with Mitosis, Local Knowledge, All-Age event reviews, industry profiles and much more. For your free copy sign up to the to the Indent network at www.indent.net.au/register. Indent is getting set for the official launch of The Indent

MusicNSW has appointed Tim Peterson to Tour Manage and support our NSW Artists whilst they perform at SxSW in Austin Texas, USA. We want to wish Bluebottle Kiss, Dappled Cities Fly, Decoder Ring, Lovetones, The Mess Hall, The Morning After Girls, The Presets and Wolfmother all the best in their SxSW assualt. These NSW artists