Join as a writer
Join our community of over 124,000 songwriters and composers
It’s free to join, and once you do, we can:
- Give businesses permission to play, perform, copy or make available your music.
- Collect payments from those organisations in the form of music licences.
- Pay you royalties for identified use of your music.
You'll also get plenty of opportunities to grow your music career with discounts and deals, networking and industry events, expert advice on your royalties, competitions and more.
Remember, you don't have to join to copyright your music. That's free and automatic. Learn more about copyright.
Your membership options
Depending on how your music is used, you can sign up for just APRA, or APRA and AMCOS. So what's the difference?
APRA represents your public performance and communication rights
That means if your music is performed live or broadcast on radio or television or streamed or downloaded on a commercial digital music service, we'll collect royalties and pay them to you.
AMCOS represents some of your reproduction rights
That means if your unpublished music is copied for commercial purposes, like a compilation CD or sheet music, we'll collect royalties and pay them to you.
If all your works are published, your publisher will collect the reproduction royalties on your behalf, and you don't need to join AMCOS.
Membership criteria
Who can join APRA?
If you write or compose your own songs, you may be eligible to join APRA. You'll also need to match one or more of the following criteria:
- You or someone else performs your songs live OR
- Your songs are broadcast on radio or TV OR
- Your songs are available to stream online.
You can't join if you're a member of an overseas Performing Rights Organisation.
If you're in a band, only the members who write or compose music need to join. Writer membership is on an individual basis and not open to companies, organisations or groups.
Who can join AMCOS?
Joining AMCOS is separate from joining APRA. You may want to join AMCOS if you have unpublished works released on a recording for sale to the public or reproduced in a production music recording. You can join AMCOS if:
- You're a copyright owner of musical works;
- You don't already belong to an overseas mechanical rights organisation;
- At least one of your works is unpublished and has been commercially reproduced eg: available on a digital music service like Spotify or Apple Music, released as a physical product by a third party, or reproduced in a production music recording.
Publisher vs AMCOS
AMCOS has reciprocal agreements with other affiliated societies around the globe – meaning your reproduction royalties are collected worldwide.
Some territories overseas require individuals to set themselves up as a Publisher or use a third-party music service to collect 100% of reproduction royalties, but as an AMCOS member you do not need to do this.
If all your songs or compositions are published, your music publisher will collect your reproduction royalties, and there's no reason to join AMCOS. AMCOS is primarily a royalty collection service and does not play the role of a music publisher. Find out what a music publisher does.
Who can join as a publisher?
If you're a music publishing company who represents other writers’ catalogues, you can apply to be a publisher member.
Are you ready to apply?
As part of the application process, we'll ask you for:
- Personal details
- Email address
- Bank account for payments
- A few details about your music
- If you're under 18, the consent of a parent/guardian
Can't remember if you already joined?
You might just need to update your details, go to login to check.
Managing your APRA AMCOS rights: you have options
APRA AMCOS offers flexible options for managing your rights—you can choose to ‘opt out’ for certain music uses or ‘licence back’ one or more of your songs or compositions.
Frequently asked questions
Who can join APRA?
If you write or compose your own songs, you may be eligible to join APRA. You'll also need to match one or more of the following criteria:
- You or someone else performs your songs live OR
- Your songs are broadcast on radio or TV OR
- Your songs are available to stream online.
You can't join if you're a member of an overseas Performing Rights Organisation. If you're in a band, only the members who write or compose music need to join.
Who can join AMCOS?
Joining AMCOS is separate from joining APRA. You may want to join AMCOS if you have unpublished works released on a recording for sale to the public or reproduced in a production music recording. You can join AMCOS if:
- You're a copyright owner of musical works;
- You don't already belong to an overseas mechanical rights organisation;
- At least one of your works is unpublished and has been commercially reproduced eg: available on a digital music service like Spotify or Apple Music, released as a physical product by a third party, or reproduced in a production music recording.
Publisher vs AMCOS
AMCOS has reciprocal agreements with other affiliated societies around the globe – meaning you reproduction royalties are collected worldwide.
Some territories overseas require individuals to set themselves up as a Publisher or use a third-party music service to collect 100% of reproduction royalties, but as an AMCOS member you do not need to do this.
If all your songs or compositions are published, your music publisher will collect your reproduction royalties, and there's no reason to join AMCOS. AMCOS is primarily a royalty collection service and does not play the role of a music publisher. Find out what a music publisher does.
Who can join as a publisher?
If you're a music publishing company who represents other writers’ catalogues, you can apply to be a publisher member.
We're here to help
We've got specialised departments to look after our members, licence enquiries, international affiliates, and more. Get in touch or send us a message using our department direct form.
