APRA AMCOS collects licence fees from Video on Demand (VOD) service providers, covering subscription services such as Netflix, Disney+, Apple, Stan, Amazon Prime and Neon in New Zealand, and transactional (pay-per-view) services, such as iTunes, Telstra Media and pay-per-view content offered by Apple TV, Disney and Amazon.
These licences cover performing and mechanical rights, and royalties are paid to both APRA and AMCOS members using the methods described below.
Where possible, we perform distributions by direct allocation of the licence fees paid by Video on Demand services providers based on the data they can provide us with.
For smaller video on demand services with licence fees less than $10,000 per quarter, we distribute by analogy using information from other VOD services as it is not cost effective for us to make a direct allocation.
Video on Demand services provide us with cue sheets for the productions they make themselves and sales/stream reports for all the productions available from their service. For other programs, where the associated cue sheet is not already in our system, we will look for the cue sheet from other sources (e.g. the producer/distributor of the production, or CIS-Net AVI -a centralised database for cue sheets). An electronic version of each cue sheet is created on our system and the track listing is directly matched to the vast repertoire of songs in our database.
The productions listed on the sales/stream reports are then directly matched to existing cue sheets in our database.
We research missing cue sheets, prioritising titles with the highest number of streams or sales value and add these to our database to enable us to make a royalty distribution on the works contained in those cue sheets. This research process is manual and time consuming, so for the remaining titles, only films and tv productions that auto-match with the records in our database are included in the distribution.
Both APRA’s and AMCOS’ distribution policy uses a ‘points’ system to allocate royalties to each song. From the cue sheets, we allocate one point per second of duration for each song. The points are then multiplied by the number of streams allocated to the program. For APRA only they are further weighted based on the way that music is used. For example, a song which is used as ‘featured music’ in the film would have a higher value than the closing credits music. The following table sets out how points are weighted based on music use:
Music use weightings
How points are used to calculate the royalty amount payable for each song
APRA: For Subscription VOD services, once the points have been calculated for all payable songs for a particular service, the total revenue collected from that Video on Demand service is divided by the total number of points, resulting in a $ rate per point. This rate is then multiplied by the number of points given to a song based on the weightings above, resulting in the royalty amount payable for that song. This calculation is performed for every song being paid in the distribution.
AMCOS: For subscription VOD services we use the number of streams per film or television episode to calculate a value per title. This value is then shared across the songs contained in the cue sheet, according to each song’s relative duration in the production. No music use weightings are applied.
APRA & AMCOS: For Transactional VOD services a royalty is calculated for each production (rate multiplied by sale/rental price multiplied by number of transactions) and the music in the production will share in the distribution according to a combination of its relative duration and type of use.
Once we have calculated the amount payable for a song, we pay that amount to the copyright owner of the work. If the copyright owner is not a member of APRA or AMCOS but a member of an affiliated overseas society, we pay the money to that society.
Where a service can provide usable data and:
a direct allocation is made (i.e. licence fees from the service are directed to the music on the services music reports).
In other circumstances an analogous distribution is made and assessed on a service-by-service basis.
Distributions for Video on Demand services are calculated and 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).
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.
Cue sheet:
A cue sheet is a record of all songs used in a film and/or television production. APRA AMCOS is provided with cue sheets for all locally produced programs broadcast in Australia and New Zealand and this information is used to distribute royalties for the public performance of the song.
This fact sheet is a guide only. Refer to our full Distribution Rules and Practices for more information.