As an APRA member, you have given us control of the performing and communication rights in your songs so we can license and distribute royalties on your behalf when your music is used in those ways.
However, there may be times when you wish to deal directly with a music user and grant them a licence to use your music yourself, rather than through us. In these circumstances, before you can license the performing rights in your music yourself, you need to take the relevant rights back from us.
There are three ways of doing this - we call them Opt Out, Licence Back or Resignation.
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, all live performances or digital downloads. 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 for a specific use. We will continue to manage those rights for all other users.
Resignation of your membership means you take back control of all the performing and communications rights in your songs and we cease licensing or distributing royalties for your songs on your behalf. You can then license those rights however you like, including directly with music users or through other music rights management organisations.
If you deal directly with users via Opt Out, Licence Back or Resignation, 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.
Examples of when APRA members may choose to Licence Back or Opt Out rather than license through APRA include:
Members may choose to resign from APRA in circumstances where they consider it financially or otherwise beneficial to self-manage their rights and license directly with users or have their performing and communication rights administered by a music rights management organisation other than APRA (for example where they write songs in a genre that is specific to a particular territory overseas).
Here's how to apply for Opt Out and Licence Back or Resign your membership. If you need help with any of these, please contact us - our membership team is here to assist you.
If you want to deal directly with someone in Australia or New Zealand to use one or more of your songs, we can grant you a Licence Back. You will need to let us know who 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.
If you are going to license your live performance of your own music, performance in a cinema movie, or the communication (broadcast or online) of your songs, you need to give us written notice of this at least one week before the use.
For all other uses (live performances of your music by others or performances of recordings of your songs) we need two weeks’ written notice.
You also need to provide APRA AMCOS with a signed consent and indemnity from all interested parties (for example, co-writers or publishers).
If the Licence Back arrangement is complex, we may charge an administration fee (capped at $200).
Please download the relevant form, fill it out, and email it to [email protected] to submit your Licence Back Request.
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 are:
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:
If the Opt Out arrangement is complex, we may charge an administration fee (capped at $200).
Forms:
Please download the relevant form, fill it out, and email it to [email protected] to submit your Licence Back Request.
APRA AMCOS can grant members a free licence to offer their own music on their own website, for non-commercial purposes (the works are provided free). The application process is quick and easy:
To cease your APRA membership all you need to do is contact us to let us know.
We will be in touch to confirm the circumstances of your resignation so that we can make the necessary updates to our records, including changes to your songs’ registration details and timelines around when we should cease licensing your songs and distributing royalties to you. You will receive a letter of confirmation once your membership has ceased.
There is a standard six-month notice period for resignation of membership, after which you will cease to be a member on the earlier of 30 June or 31 December. Ending your membership sooner may be possible in the appropriate circumstances, on request.
If you have any questions about resigning your membership, please contact us.
The Opt Out, Licence Back and Resignation information provided here relates to your performing and communication rights. For information about Opt Out, Licence Back and Resignation arrangements for your mechanical rights, you can read about managing your AMCOS rights here or contact us.