What is AMCOS?
AMCOS is the Australasian Mechanical Copyright Owners Society
It manages your mechanical reproduction rights
It’s free to join
What is AMCOS?
AMCOS stands for Australasian Mechanical Copyright Owners Society.
It was established in 1979 to manage “mechanical reproduction” royalties, which is the reproduction (or copying) of musical works for different purposes and in different formats.
The rights AMCOS manage covers the copying of musical works by services or businesses for the purpose of public performance in our region or when copied for sale. For instance, copying of your works occurs when record labels or other parties create CDs or DVDs for sale, or when they press vinyl. Sometimes, when music is ‘publicly performed’ at a business, copies need to be made of musical works to make playing that music possible. Also, there are reproduction rights used by digital streaming or VOD services when they make copies of musical works for the purpose of delivering their service online.
To understand AMCOS, we also need to talk about APRA. They work together under the name APRA AMCOS and they manage different types of music rights that generate royalties for music creators.
- APRA: manages public performance and communication rights and collects royalties earned when your music is played live, on radio, streamed or played in businesses.
- AMCOS: manages reproduction (or “mechanical”) rights and collects royalties from when your music is copied.
Who can join?
If you’re signed with a music publisher, your publisher will usually already be a member of AMCOS, so they will be paid the reproduction royalties from AMCOS, which they will then pay to you in accordance with your publisher agreement. You don’t need to join AMCOS separately.
If you do not have a music publisher, you can join AMCOS once your music has been reproduced commercially. This includes when copied onto CDs or vinyl for sale, or when used by an online service as a digital download or a stream, or if reproduced into sheet music.
You can apply for both APRA and AMCOS memberships at the same time (they’re both free!) or join AMCOS later and it will be added to your existing APRA membership.
How to apply
It’s easy to apply to join AMCOS.
If you’re not signed with a publisher, you are able to join AMCOS as an individual member and receive your reproduction royalties directly. If you have joined APRA but you’re not sure if you’re an AMCOS member, log in to the Writer Portal, go to My Account >> My Membership.
See also:
Frequently asked questions
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.
What is AMCOS?
AMCOS stands for the Australasian Mechanical Copyright Owners Society. We are not a publisher or aggregator. We are the sole Mechanical Rights Organisation (MRO) that licenses musical works to third parties for the Australian and New Zealand territory, and distributes mechanical royalties to writer and publisher members.
AMCOS membership is free to join and remains active throughout your lifetime.
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.
What does AMCOS collect?
AMCOS collects reproduction or “mechanical” royalties. These are generated whenever an original musical work is licensed by a third party and commercially reproduced or sold. This includes CD/DVD/vinyl recordings, digital downloads and streaming. Major labels, indie labels and digital service providers (DSPs), such as iTunes and Spotify, are licensed by AMCOS.
It is important to note that AMCOS royalties from digital service providers are a separate income stream from any payments you might receive from your distributor, aggregator or record label.
AMCOS also collects print mechanicals which are generated from the Schools Photocopying Distribution (SPD) and Schools Audio-Visual licences. It's free to join AMCOS - minimal commission costs are deducted from the royalties prior to being distributed to members.
