Distribution information guide: Dance schools
Where does the money come from?
APRA AMCOS collects licence fees from a large number of dance schools in Australia and New Zealand for the use of music to accompany classes.
What information does APRA AMCOS use to determine who should be paid?
Although the nature of music use accompanying dance classes is classified as featured music use, given the number of dance schools that are licensed it would be inefficient and unfeasible to collect detailed music use reports from all licensees.
As at June 2021, APRA is consulting with industry groups and undertaking analysis of music use in dance classes with the goal of developing a distribution policy which uses music collected either directly or via a third party from dance schools, in addition to targeted sample or proxy data sets. While that consultation is ongoing, APRA distributes these licence fees by way of analogous data sources using the same method as is used to distribute background audio, i.e.:
- radio (commercial & community radio in Australia; and commercial & student radio in New Zealand);
- music streaming services.
How are songs matched to the data APRA AMCOS receives?
Where we make payments via analogy, the song matching process has already taken place within the different distribution pools that this revenue is allocated to.
How are the royalties calculated?
For APRA licence fees
The royalties are calculated and paid according to each different distribution pool. Refer to the relevant information guide for more information.
For AMCOS licence fees
The dance school licence fee includes an AMCOS portion which is included in the Non-Retail Blanket distribution pool. This data is collected from background music suppliers, who provide music use reports based on a song occurrence basis (i.e. not a song duration basis). As not all background music suppliers provide music use reports, the licence fees from similar music users are pooled together.
How often are royalties paid?
Distributions for dance schools are calculated and paid according to the distribution pools that the revenue is allocated to. Radio and streaming services background music distributions are paid quarterly.
What about songs that cannot be identified or are the subject of a dispute?
View our information guide on Unidentified Songs and Disputes for more information.
Key terms used in our Distribution Rules and Practices document
Songs:
The Copyright Act refers to compositions, musical scores in the form of sheet music, broadsheets or other notation as musical works. Lyrics or words to a song are considered literary works. When we refer to songs, we are referring to all the elements of a musical/literary work protected by copyright.
Analogy:
Royalties are distributed via distribution pools (or by copying datasets) that are most similar in terms of a licensee’s music content. This method is used when Direct Allocation or Sample reporting is impractical.
This fact sheet is a guide only. Refer to our full Distribution Rules and Practices for more information.
