Distribution rules & practices

Distribution information guides

We care about ensuring the licence fees our music customers pay are paid to our songwriter, composer and publisher members and affiliated overseas societies in the most efficient and accurate way possible.

For every dollar we collect, almost 86 cents is paid to music creators. At 13.8%, our cost to revenue ratio compares very favourably to affiliated organisations providing the same service overseas.

We take paying the right copyright owner their royalties very seriously. Our distribution policy is to strike a sensible balance between using accurate data to determine who should be paid royalties and the cost of collecting that data. Where it is cost effective to collect direct data we will. Where it is not, we use sample data or music recognition technology, followed by alternative or proxy data sources representing the most comparable music use possible.

We’re always looking for the best sources of data, and we invest in world’s best practice data matching systems. This approach means we’re able to distribute licence fees efficiently.

Our distribution information guides explain how the licence fees APRA AMCOS collects are paid out as royalties.

View the guides

Recent Distribution changes

From time to time we make changes to our Distribution rules and practices that are important for members to understand. Read a simple explanation of recent key changes, and find out when they take effect.

View recent changes to our Distribution practices