We pay you royalty payments when your music is used by businesses. We take the headache out of tracking which businesses use your music, how they use your music, and when they use your music.
We do the work for you, so you can spend more time writing music, and less time on administration.
APRA pays performing royalties from domestic sources quarterly and processes international royalties monthly. AMCOS processes mechanical royalties quarterly. All amounts over $10 are paid within 60 days of the end of each calendar quarter, usually just before the 60th day.
Almost all businesses and organisations use music. Think of your favourite café, hairdresser, nightclubs, festivals, radio stations, television ads, streaming services, and YouTube videos. APRA AMCOS offers licences to these businesses and organisations to use your music. We also track what music they use. We then pay songwriters, composers and music publishers their share of the licence fees we collect, after deducting our administration costs.
Do you play live at pubs, clubs, cafes, or other live music venues? You can get song royalties for these performances by submitting a Performance Report via the Writer Portal or APRA AMCOS for Music Creators app (available from the App Store or Google Play).
Just tell us what songs you’ve performed in which venues over the past financial year—from 1 July to 30 June—and you could receive royalty payments for playing your original music live. Submit after the show or when it is convenient for you, royalties are paid quarterly.
Make sure you also tell us about any covers you perform so the original songwriters can get paid royalties. If someone else performs your song live, you'll get the song royalties.
Once you become a member, make sure you tell us your Australian Business Number (ABN). If you don’t have an ABN, get one! We can only accept Individual/Sole Trader ABNs.
If you don’t have an ABN and you earn more than $500 in APRA royalties or $75 in AMCOS royalties, we have to deduct withholding tax from your royalties at the highest marginal rate for personal income tax.
Apply for an ABN through the Australian Business Register.
Can I earn royalties from airplay on online radio and digital radio stations?
Yes. The majority of Australian and New Zealand online and digital radio stations are simulcasts of their analogue versions, and this additional use is licensed under their standard APRA AMCOS agreements.
Can I earn royalties from digital downloads and streamed music?
Yes. Remember to register your works.
Digital royalties are paid out in our quarterly distributions. Writer members do not need to do any reporting, just register your works! However, adding ISRCs to your work registrations does assist us greatly.
We have licence agreements in place with most legal digital service providers (eg: Spotify, Apple Music). Traditionally, we would expect royalties to be paid out 6 months after streaming or download in Australia or New Zealand - depending on the reporting and processing lead times. Overseas royalties do take longer, as they must first be processed by our international affiliate societies. This can take 12-24 months, depending on the territory.
Can I earn royalties from plays or downloads of my music from triple j Unearthed website?
Musical works broadcast on triple j Unearthed do earn performing and communication right royalties from APRA AMCOS. We're currently working with the ABC to get data for streams and downloads from their websites.
Uploading your songs to a website can be a great way of getting your music heard, but before uploading your work, you should read and understand all of the terms and conditions. In the case of triple j, you should be aware that the upload agreement states that there will not be any royalties received from promotional downloads.
Can I earn royalties if my music is played by a webcaster?
Yes, but keep in mind that the licence fees we collect from webcast services are a fraction of what we collect from commercial radio stations. Given the vast number of hours of music programming and the significantly lower licence fees we collect, the royalty distributions for streams by webcasters are incredibly small.
Can I earn royalties if my music is used on YouTube?
Yes. Our licence agreement with YouTube covers the streaming of all music videos including music embedded in User Generated Content (UGC).
You may find that your works have been being synchronised as part of other users’ uploaded content to YouTube. It is important to understand that the synchronisation rights of a work are owned by the original copyright owner/music publisher. Therefore, a work cannot be used without gaining permission from the copyright holder (that means you or your publisher!).
If you discover that your musical work has been used without your consent, there are two options available:
Please note, if you want to upload cover versions of songs to a User Generated Content site (UGC) where a visual element is present (YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, TikTok etc), you may need to clear the synchronisation rights with the music publishers/original copyright owners.
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.