You can deal directly with the music user. As an AMCOS member, you have given us control of the mechanical reproduction rights in your songs, but you can take back those rights if you wish.
AMCOS offers you two ways of doing this - we call them Opt Out and Licence Back.
Using Opt Out, you can decide to manage the rights in your full repertoire (i.e, all of your music) for particular music uses - for example, digital downloads or physical records. We will continue to manage your full repertoire for all other uses.
Licence Back allows you to license one or more of your songs directly to a particular user. We will continue to manage those rights for all other users.
If you deal directly with users, we will not enforce your rights or collect licence fees for those uses. This may affect your legal rights and income. You may want to get your own legal advice about this.
Here's how to apply for Opt Out and Licence Back. If you need help with this, contact our membership team - details below.
If you want to deal directly with someone in Australia or New Zealand to use one or more of your songs, we will grant you a Licence Back. You will need to let us know whom you’re licensing (by name or by description so we don’t try to license them as well). We will continue to license all other users on your behalf (which notice period may be shortened by the Board at its discretion).
If you are going to license mechanical reproductions of your own music, you need to give us written notice of whom you’re licensing and details of the specific purpose of the licence, at least 14 days before the use.
You must also comply with such reasonable preconditions, including as to payment of costs, prescribed by the AMCOS Board from time to time.
You can choose to Opt Out of certain categories of use, for all your works. This will give you personal and complete control of all your works, worldwide, for that type of use. You will be able to grant licences to anyone for that use, on your terms, or you may choose not to license the works at all.
The categories of use that you can Opt Out of include:
If you Opt Out, we will not license any uses of your works in the relevant category, and you won’t receive any money from us for that use. We also will not be able to enforce your rights if someone infringes your copyright.
The minimum period to Opt Out is 12 months. If you want to opt out, you must give us at least three months written notice to take effect either on a 31 March, 30 June, 30 September or 31 December in any year.
You must also comply with such reasonable preconditions, including as to payment of costs, prescribed by the AMCOS Board from time to time.
As a result of changes in the way some members want to negotiate licences for their digital rights, we are offering increased flexibility to all members in the way they are able to withdraw rights from AMCOS for digital services.
Currently, your membership agreement permits you to withdraw rights from AMCOS for certain categories of use (for example, digital downloads or non-Broadcast communications), for all services in the relevant category.
For digital services that operate internationally, it is proposed that members be permitted to withdraw their rights in relation to nominated services. That is, you will be able to notify AMCOS that you wish to negotiate directly with particular international digital services, provided you give us prior notice.
If you are interested in exploring this option further and would like a list of the relevant services currently operating in our region, please contact us.
Please note that as with AMCOS’ existing Opt Out provisions, members must comply with such reasonable preconditions, including as to the payment of any costs, prescribed by the Board from time to time for specific digital service Opt Outs.
Essentially, the terms of the variation to your membership agreement are as follows:
Otherwise, the terms of your membership agreement will continue to apply.
We believe that these amendments will give our members flexibility to deal with particular multi-territorial digital services, while maintaining the certainty that we require for licensing the majority of your rights. Of course, if you wish to keep things as they are and have AMCOS continue to license your rights for all digital services, you do not need to do anything.
If you do want to negotiate directly with particular multi-territorial digital services, please contact us.