Joining APRA and AMCOS as a publisher is easy and doesn't cost anything, however membership is subject to the following eligibility criteria:
- The applicant must be a bona fide publishing company or business that is registered and carried on in Australia or New Zealand.
- The applicant must control at least one work which has been commercially released or published in some form.
- The applicant must have a publishing agreement with at least one writer who is a member of APRA or an affiliated performing right society.
In addition to this we require the following information:
- a copy of the publisher’s certificate of incorporation or registration of business name.
- details of the person/s owning and carrying on the publishing company or business.
- the publisher's standard songwriting agreement.
APRA Publisher Membership
APRA has two classes of publisher membership – Full and Associate. Full Publisher Membership of APRA is only available to corporations (Pty Limited or Limited companies). However, any registered business, not being a corporation, may be admitted to APRA as an Associate Publisher Member. The only difference between the two classes is that Full members are entitled to attend and vote at APRA general meetings, but Associate members are not.
AMCOS Publisher Membership
AMCOS does not distinguish between Full and Associate membership; AMCOS members are either Category A members (less than 500 recorded works) or Category B members (500 or more recorded works).
How to join
The first step to becoming a Publisher Member of APRA and/or AMCOS is to fill out the Assessment of Eligibility for Publisher Membership form.
After submitting this form you will be supplied standard application forms if you are eligible for membership.