Live music, halls & functions, community groups, community bands, cruise ships, eisteddfodau, music in the workplace
APRA AMCOS collects licence fees in Australia and New Zealand for live performances in hotels, pubs, restaurants and other businesses who host live music. In addition, APRA AMCOS has other clients whose licences include the right to perform live music, and all or some of the money from those schemes (see table below) is also included in the Live performance royalty distribution pool. We also include money in the live performance Pool where it was licenced for a concert and the concert value is below $300, or we have been unable to obtain a set list from the concert’s performer for 3 years.
All royalties from the following licence schemes are paid to the live Performance distribution pool:
Australia
New Zealand
A share of royalties from the following licence schemes are paid to the live performance distribution pool:
Australia
New Zealand
The balance of licence fees received are paid to other data sources, including background music, Music Recognition Technology (MRT) and survey data.
For performances that APRA AMCOS directly licenses with a concert or event promoter, see the Concerts, Events and Festivals guidelines.
We use reports submitted by APRA AMCOS members detailing the songs they’ve performed live (performance reports) to determine which works share in the distribution of those royalties.
APRA writer members may submit reports on their own (or their band’s) behalf. APRA publisher members and affiliate societies may submit reports for overseas writers that they represent here.
The songs submitted by APRA AMCOS in their performance reports are directly matched to the vast repertoire of songs in our database. Where a song does not exist in our database then members can also submit the songs and register songwriting contributions at the same time that they submit their reports.
A live performance revenue pool is calculated by combining money from all ‘live music’ clients which has been collected throughout the year. Then the songs performed live at venues throughout the year (as detailed in performance reports) are used to create payments. A standard value is applied to each performance, except for classical and jazz music, where the reported durations are used (i.e. if less than 6 minutes in duration then we apply 1 point per 15 seconds or part thereof, and if 6 minutes or longer, the duration is rounded to the nearest minute and we then apply 4 points a minute).
The revenue is distributed by direct allocation to performance reports provided by members and affiliates. In order to make timely quarterly royalty payments, the performance rate is fixed (separately for Australia and New Zealand) at the beginning of each financial year. That rate is calculated by reference to the expected revenue collected under the relevant licences and the number of performances in those performance reports. For this reason, the song rate may vary each year.
Where a retrospective claim is due to be paid, payment will occur in APRA’s next live performance pool distribution. It will be credited at the fixed point value rate applicable to the distribution for that year.
Once we have calculated the amount payable for a song, we can pay that amount to the copyright owner of the work. If the copyright owner is a member of one of APRA AMCOS’ affiliated overseas societies, we pay the money to that society.
The Eisteddfodau licence scheme includes the right to reproduce songs for the purpose of the performance. This AMCOS share of the licence fee is allocated on an analogous basis to the Non-Retail Blanket distribution pool (the data of which primarily relates to music played as background music by businesses).
APRA’s performance reports (live music) pool and AMCOS’ Non-Retail Blanket pool are both paid quarterly.
View our information guide on Unidentified Songs and Disputes for more information.
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.
Direct Allocation:
Royalties are distributed via comprehensive reporting to ensure that all reported works (subject to any thresholds that may apply) share in the distribution of the corresponding licence fees).
Performance reports:
An online form submitted to APRA AMCOS by members who perform their original songs live. The form details performances in Australia and New Zealand that were not a promoted concert (large scale promoted concert/festival/event).
Music Recognition Technology (MRT):
A digital ‘fingerprint’ of each piece of music is created when it is used. This fingerprint is then compared to the digital fingerprints of many millions of musical works housed in a third-party fingerprint database. This database also contains each work’s metadata (that is, the names of writers, performers, recording details etc.) enabling the owners of each matched work to be identified and paid accordingly.
This fact sheet is a guide only. Refer to our full Distribution Rules and Practices for more information.