APRA’s royalty payments for major concerts to change to align with international practice
Next year we will bring into effect a change to the distribution practice for major concerts (that is concerts where APRA licenses the promoter directly) where there is a headline and support act involved.
The change will mean that songs performed by support acts at major concerts in Australia and New Zealand will be allocated a fixed 20% split of APRA royalties from the concert, while the songs performed by the headliner will be allocated 80% of the royalties.
The changes do not apply to events that we license as a festival where we will continue to allocate according to the total number of works performed by all acts.
Right now, we are in discussions with some affected managers and members to work through the implications for them and better understand their feedback. These discussions follow direct consultation over approximately three months ahead of the decision to change, which has been approved by the APRA Board. It comes into effect with payments to members in our November royalty distribution.
Importantly, the change brings us into alignment with other countries and collecting societies and seeks to retain revenue and preserve royalties in Australia and New Zealand for local artists.
It comes into effect with payments to members in our November royalty distribution.
We will continue to talk to members about this change and its rationale as well as share this information regularly ahead of the shift to a new distribution practice.