Your music, protected and paid

Composers, lyricists, songwriters, arrangers and music publishers who own or control the copyright in musical works. People who have inherited those rights can join as legal heirs.

Associate membership is open to anyone else with a professional interest in music, such as educators, producers, managers and students. Associate members don't receive royalties.

Complete the membership application form, submit the required documents, register your musical works and sign the rights mandate. Once your application is approved, ACPOSL starts licensing and collecting royalties for your works. Read the full membership guide.

When you sign the rights mandate, you authorise ACPOSL to license the public performance and communication of your works, collect royalties for you and distribute them under ACPOSL's Distribution Rules.

Broadcasters, venues, event organisers and other licensed users report the music they use. ACPOSL matches those reports against its register of works to find the rights holders, then pays each one under the Distribution Rules. You receive a statement showing what you earned. How royalties work.

Royalties are shared according to the ownership shares registered for the work, between its composers, lyricists and publishers. Agree the shares with your co-writers and record them on a split sheet (PDF, 4.7 MB).

Yes. Legal heir membership lets you collect the royalties from inherited works once you provide the legal documents that show your entitlement.