Getting paid in Australia

In Australia copyright is free and automatic: the moment you record or write down an original song, it's yours. There is no register to file with and no fee to pay, unlike the United States. What isn't automatic is the money.

Every record has two copyrights

This trips up nearly everyone, and it decides who pays you.

• The song (the composition: melody and lyrics). Owned by the songwriters. Licensed in Australia by APRA AMCOS.
• The recording (the master: that specific take). Owned by whoever made or paid for the recording — you, if you self-release. Licensed for public play by PPCA.

One Spotify stream pays both, through different pipes. If you only ever registered with a distributor, you're collecting one of them.

The three places you register

1. 1APRA AMCOS, as a writer. Free, for the song. APRA collects when it's performed or streamed; AMCOS collects when it's reproduced. Self-releasing artists join as a writer and add AMCOS, not as a publisher.
2. 2PPCA. For the recording, when it's played in public: radio, shops, venues, TV. If you own your masters you register twice, as an artist and as the rights holder.
3. 3A distributor. Gets the recording onto Spotify, Apple and the rest, and pays you the streaming money for the master.

Registering somewhere doesn't pay you either: a song nobody registered earns nothing no matter how often it's played. The full guide has the order to do it in and what each form actually needs.