APRA collects licence fees from Australian and New Zealand commercial promoters of concerts, concert tours, dance parties, festivals and events.
The promoter of the concert, dance party, festival or event supplies a music setlist of main and support artists (or every artist on a festival bill) for each event. The promoter will often work with artist management to provide the setlist to APRA AMCOS. If setlist information is not received from the promoter in a timely manner, APRA AMCOS will directly contact the artist (if they are a member) or the overseas affiliated society who represents the artist, to obtain the setlist.
In some cases, in agreement with the promoter, APRA AMCOS will use Music Recognition Technology (MRT) to automatically identify songs performed at dance music festivals.
The songs listed in the setlists provided by the promoters are directly matched to the vast repertoire of songs in our database.
Royalties are calculated by direct reports per event. The licence fees paid by the promoter are allocated directly to the songs performed by the concert’s headline artists and support artists, or every artist on a festival bill.
Where APRA AMCOS has received full reporting (all setlists) for an event, the invoiced licence fee is allocated in full in the next quarterly distribution to all songs in the setlists provided. Where APRA AMCOS has been provided with only some setlists for an event, a portion of the invoiced licence fee is distributed to the songs in the setlists that have been provided. The remainder of the invoiced licence fee is held until APRA AMCOS receives the outstanding setlists and the remaining licence fees are released into the next distribution. In calculating the licence fee amount to withhold from a distribution when all setlists haven’t been provided, headline artists are given a higher weighting than support artists.
Where an event is a concert or festival and the licence fee is less than $300, or where setlists can’t be obtained after 3 years, the licence fee will be added to APRA’s Live Performance Report distribution pool. Where an event is not a concert or festival and the licence fee is less than $300, the fee will be allocated across the Background Audio distribution pools. Where a setlist is unable to be obtained after 3 years, the undistributed money is also included in the Live Performance Report pool.
A standard duration of 3 minutes is applied to all Distributable Event performances, except for contemporary classical and jazz music, which are credited at their reported durations.
Only live music and recorded music performed by DJs are allocated royalties in a promoted concert distribution. In addition, recorded music which accompanies the vocal or other live performance of the performer, or ‘play on’ music for the performer immediately before and/or during the performer’s entrance on stage is also allocated royalties.
Australia and New Zealand’s major symphony orchestras are licensed by APRA and provide full reports of the compositions they perform. All copyright compositions and copyright arrangements performed by the orchestras are included in APRA’s royalty distributions. The licence fees paid by the Sydney Symphony Orchestra, for example, are distributed to the compositions performed by that orchestra. The same direct allocation of licence fees applies to each orchestra.
Once we have calculated the amount payable for a song or composition, we can pay that amount to the copyright owner of the work. If the copyright owner is not a member of APRA or AMCOS, we pay the money to the affiliated overseas society that represents them.
Distributions for Australian and New Zealand concerts and events are calculated and paid quarterly. However, through reciprocal agreements with some overseas affiliated societies or members, royalty payment may be made under certain circumstances within 28 days or within 90 days from the date of payment of the licence fee by the promoter, depending on the size of the fee. Due to the nature of festival licensing and distribution, festival performances do not qualify for fast-tracked payments.
View our information guide on Unidentified Songs and Disputes for more information.
Songs:
The Copyright Act refers to compositions, musical scores in the form of sheet music, broadsheets or other notation as musical works. Lyrics or words to a song are considered literary works. When we refer to songs, we are referring to all the elements of a musical/literary work protected by copyright.
Music Recognition Technology (MRT):
A digital ‘fingerprint’ of each piece of music is created when it is used. This fingerprint is then compared to the digital fingerprints of many millions of musical works housed in a third-party fingerprint database. This database also contains each work’s metadata (that is, the names of writers, performers, recording details etc.) enabling the owners of each matched work to be identified and paid accordingly.
This fact sheet is a guide only. Refer to our full Distribution Rules and Practices for more information.