Australia posts record copyright revenue growth

Australia’s music copyright organisation APRA|AMCOS has distributed 14% more in royalties to its members in the 2011/12 financial year. The increase has resulted from record revenue growth in the recording rights arm of its business, AMCOS, and from a program of accelerated distributions across all areas of its operations.

Revenue for the group, which represents songwriters, composers and music publishers, grew by 7.2% overall, to $257.4 million. APRA revenue – representing music royalties for public performances, broadcasts and online communications – grew by 1.5% to $185.7 million, while AMCOS revenue – representing royalties from physical sales, digital downloads and other reproductions of music – grew by more than 25% to $71.7 million.

Other highlights included a 9.1% increase in international revenue for Australasian music creators – a new record of $22.1 million, confirming the growing international interest in the work of Australian songwriters, with Australia now being the sixth largest recording market in the world . In addition, revenue from digital downloads and online sources grew by 17.9% to 35.6 million.

The 2011-2012 Year in Review is available for download from the APRA|AMCOS website here.

In the meantime, APRA’s counterpart Screenrights, the agency administering Australia’s copyright provisions that allow government departments, educational institutions,  pay television, mobile phones, IPTV and other services to copy and retransmit free to air broadcasts, has collected a record $40.7 million for 2011-2012, marking a total increase of 10.8% in collections revenue across all licences.