APRA AMCOS Information

APRA AMCOS is Australasia’s leading music rights management organisation representing songwriters, composers and publishers since 1926. With more than 119,000 members across Australia and New Zealand, our membership includes the very best and brightest of established and emerging musical talent at home and around the globe. We administer rights on their behalf, supporting songwriters, composers and publishers in an industry that is a flagship of culture and creativity, generating billions of dollars each year for the Australian and New Zealand economies. We are affiliated with similar collective management organisations around the world. So when Australian and New Zealand songs and compositions are played overseas, Australian and New Zealand writers get paid. We also help music customers in Australia and New Zealand access music from the rest of the world. APRA, the Australasian Performing Right Association Limited (APRA) was established in 1926 to manage the performance and communication rights of its members. This covers music that is communicated or performed publicly including on radio, television, online, live gigs in pubs and clubs etc. AMCOS, the Australasian Mechanical Copyright Owners Society Limited (AMCOS) was established in 1979 to manage “mechanical royalties”, that is, the reproduction or copying and storage of music in different formats. This covers copying of songs and compositions by record labels or other parties to sell them on CD, DVD, online, for use as production music and for radio/TV programs. Today APRA AMCOS is one organisation that covers all these rights and uses of music, for both local and international songs, for the benefit of music creators and music customers.