Member tools
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 You may want to join AMCOS if you have unpublished works released on a recording for sale to the public or reproduced in a production music recording.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- At least one of your works is unpublished and has been commercially reproduced eg: available on a digital music service like Spotify or Apple Music, released as a physical product by a third party, or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.
How do I join my band up to APRA AMCOS?
The copyright in a song is owned by the individual who wrote the song. For this reason, only individual songwriters can join APRA AMCOS. A band cannot sign up as a single entity. If all of your band members write songs or collaborate to write songs, then all band members can individually join APRA AMCOS as members.
If you are in a band, when you complete your APRA AMCOS membership application, make sure you tell us your band/performer name.
When registering works that have been co-written, you'll need to tell us the names of the other writers and the ownership percentage splits for each of the writers. It's important that all songwriters within the band agree on the percentage splits for each work before registering the work with APRA AMCOS, otherwise this can lead to problems down the track when royalties may become payable for that work.
Each song co-written by the band only needs to be registered with APRA AMCOS once. The band should agree on who will take responsibility for registering each work and providing the songwriter and ownership split details. If more than one writer registers the song and there are differences in the details provided, this can make it harder for us to track the use your music and pay royalties correctly.
Only the musical work copyright owners (ie the songwriters and the music publisher if applicable) should be credited in the APRA AMCOS registration.
Glossary
The music industry is full of jargon. Use our plain-English glossary to understand what the more obscure terms mean.
