Membership of AMCOS is free!
As a writer, you can join AMCOS if:
- You are a copyright owner of musical works
- You have applied for APRA writer membership
- At least one of your works has been released on a recording for sale to the public or has been reproduced on a production music recording.
- You are ordinarily resident in Australia, New Zealand or the Pacific.
Why Join?
While APRA can collect royalties when your music is publicly performed and broadcast, you still need to make arrangements for the collection of mechanical royalties.
Mechanical royalties are legally payable when your music is recorded on tape or CD, made available for digital download or internet use, used in a film soundtrack or as a mobile phone ringtones or produced as sheet music. Your own recordings, as well as recordings made by other people, generate mechanical royalties. For example, if your own recordings are licensed out for use by other record companies on compilations etc you are entitled to receive royalties for these reproductions of your music.
You have several options:
- If all your works are published, your publisher will collect the royalties your works generate and forward them to you.
- If you have works that are unpublished, you may collect royalties on those works directly from whoever reproduced the recording. Usually the record company.
- If you have works that are unpublished you may also choose to join the Australiasian Mechanical Copyright Owners Society (AMCOS). AMCOS will collect mechanical royalties on your behalf.
AMCOS collects and distributes mechanical royalties for the reproduction of its members’ musical works for many different purposes. These include the manufacture of CDs, music videos and DVDs, the sale of mobile phone ringtones and digital downloads the use of production music and the making of radio and television programmes.
If you’re a writer who’s interested in becoming an AMCOS member you may want to read: