• Copyright and collecting royalties
• Allocation and distribution of APRA royalties
• Allocation and distribution of AMCOS royalties
• Our distribution rules and practices
• Payment timetable
• Royalty queries, disputes or complaints
• Withholding Tax and GST in Australia

copyright and Collecting royalties

APRA administers the public performance and communication right in our members' musical works. (See Copyright and Music for more detail).

We do this by collecting royalties for the performance and communication of music from a number of sources. We enter licence agreements with radio and television stations, discos, fitness centres, cinemas, live concert promoters, and other businesses that provide music for their customers either through a music on hold system or by playing music.

In return for the right to perform or communicate music, these clients pay us a licence fee. Our annual licence fees now amount to more than $110 million. To find out more about the licences we offer, go to licensing.

If you are an APRA member, you can choose to opt-out of certain APRA licence schemes, or to arrange a licence-back of a particular work that you wish to licence directly yourself. For more information, read APRA's Opt-out and Licence Back Provisions.

Allocation and distribution of royalties

In order to work out how these royalties should be allocated, APRA needs to monitor what music is being performed or communicated, and how often. As part of their licence agreements, our clients provide detailed reports of their music use, either by keeping full records or by taking part in a survey system. The aim is to obtain as accurate a picture of music use as possible, with as low administrative overheads as possible.

This data is then added to APRA’s computer and matched against the musical works and audio-visual productions already in our database. APRA staff research new works to identify the writers and publishers of the music and to obtain the corresponding music cue sheets in the case of audio-visual productions.

Separate revenue pools are created for the each of the several hundred performance sources we analyse. For example, copyright owners in music broadcast on Channel 7 share directly in the licence fees paid by the Seven Network. APRA deducts its administrative expenses from each revenue pool.

When each performance or communication is entered into APRA’s computer it is given a number of “credit points”. The amount of credit points is governed by factors such as the duration of the performance, the way in which the music was used (for example, background, featured or jingle) and, on free to air television, the time of day that the broadcast took place. Credit points in each distribution pool are allocated a dollar value by dividing the total number of credit points in the pool into the pool’s distributable licence fee.

APRA then determines the royalty allocation to each copyright owner for that distribution period.

For more information about each of the distribution pools, click on the links below:

Television
Radio
Non Broadcast categories

Allocation and distribution of AMCOS royalties

AMCOS collects income from a number of sources, the major ones being record companies, television stations, Screenrights, video makers, schools and dance schools, and anyone who reproduces music for their business or pleasure.

In many cases, the licence is on a pay per use basis, with the money being allocated directly to the copyright owner. Where a blanket licence is issued, for example to a television station, a revenue pool is created for each licensee or group of licensees.

For more information about each of the AMCOS pools, click on the links below:

Television
Commercial Radio
Audit Recoveries
Non-retail Blanket Licences
Australian Music Video
New Zealand Majors
Screenrights

Our Distribution Rules and Practices

APRA and AMCOS’ Distribution Rules determine how we allocate and distribute royalties. These documents are approved by the Board of Directors and are regularly updated. The Distribution Practices documents detail how royalties are distributed in practice. To download the documents click on the link below:

APRA Distribution Rules
APRA Distribution Practices
AMCOS Distribution Rules
AMCOS Distribution Practices

Payment timetable

APRA distributes domestic performance and broadcast royalties twice yearly. In May, we distribute the ‘A’ distribution, covering the period from July to December, and in November, the ‘B’ distribution, covering the period January to June. Payments for Jingle Forms and Live Performance Reports are made annually in each November ‘B’ distribution.

Royalties for the performance and communication of members’ works overseas are received and analysed throughout the year. They are distributed with the domestic distributions in May and November. However, if the accrued amount exceeds A$200 (cheque payment) or A$10 (electronic funds transfer payment), the royalties are usually paid at the beginning of the month following our analysis.

To find out when each overseas society is scheduled to distribute royalties to APRA, view our Schedule for Receipt of Foreign Distributions.

Please note - dates are subject to change.

Royalty queries, disputes or complaints

General Queries

Member Services are happy to help members with queries concerning royalty payments or statement information:

NSW: writer@apra.com.au
Victoria/Tasmania: victas@apra.com.au
Qld: qld@apra.com.au
South Australia/Northern Territory: sant@apra.com.au
WA: wa@apra.com.au
New Zealand: nz@apra.com.au

Disputes with other writers

If you have a dispute with a co-writer over a work and the co-writer is also an APRA member, APRA can help you resolve this dispute. We have an Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) system to assist both Writer and Publisher members. Read more about our ADR process.

Complaints about APRA

APRA also has a formal complaints procedure to help resolve any complaints you may have about APRA.