Artist Registration Information

We collect licence fees from broadcasters and businesses publicly playing recorded music or music videos, and distribute the money to the copyright holders (licensors) and Australian recording artists registered with us.

You’re entitled to register with us if you’re a recording artist who is;
an Australian citizen; or
an Australian protected person; or
an Australian resident;

AND

is a featured performer (i.e., not a session, contract musician or DJ) on a protected and eligible recording (i.e.  the recording is made by an Australian citizen, resident or company or on which at least one featured recording artist was an Australian citizen or resident for tax purposes at the time the recording was made).

IMPORTANT:  Independent Artists

If you:
hold the copyright of your sound recording; or
only have a distribution deal with a record company;

Then you need to register with us as a Licensor.

When Do I Need To Register?

If you want to be included in this year’s round of direct artist payments, you need to be registered by 31 August.

How Do I Register as an Artist?

To register as an Australian recording artist for payments under the Artist Direct Distribution Scheme, you’ll need to complete the following online forms:

Artist Registration Form 
Recording Details Form

If you are under 18 years of age, please contact PPCA before you complete and submit any of the forms.

Distributions are made annually and no funds are held in reserve for artists who haven’t registered yet. Talk to your record company about how payments that you receive under the scheme are affected by your particular recording agreement. Usually, these payments will be taken into account in determining your entitlement to 'Miscellaneous Income' under your agreement.

What Happens After Registration?

Once you have submitted the necessary registration forms, including your Recording Details, we will process and, once completed, send you an acknowledgement with a list of your registered tracks for review.

You will then be eligible to receive income should the tracks you have registered appear in our recording usage files. This income should not be confused with the performance fees collected and distributed by APRA. 

You will need to submit Recording Details forms for any further track registrations, and must notify us if any of your details change.

If you choose not to register with us, then all the income that you would have received from the scheme will go directly to the PPCA licensor – usually your record label. Any distribution to you will then be dictated by the terms of your contract with them.