Membership for Music Creators
Your music is being played? As an AKM member, you will receive royalties for it!
Your music is being played? As an AKM member, you will receive royalties for it!
We stand up for your rights and collect those royalties for you — all around the world! In order to join AKM and austro mechana, you should be a composer, lyricist, or arranger, and at least one of your works must have been used in the past calendar year or in the current year.
I am already a member
Your membership is no way tied to Austrian citizenship or actual residence in Austria.
You compose or write music lyrics, you arrange or edit music works, or you have founded a music publishing company? Then you are entitled to receive money for performances, broadcasts, record sales, and usages of your (published) works – your royalties!
Over 25,000 composers, lyricists, and music publishers already entrust us with managing their music rights. We are their trustees – not only in Austria but also through our collaboration with collecting societies all around the world. This means we don’t generate profits ourselves but instead distribute the revenue which we collect to our members.
If you meet the admission requirements, we will send you an email with the link to the online application forms. Once we have received the completed forms, we will notify you in writing of your acceptance.
1
You fill out the application for admission.
2
AKM checks whether the admission requirements are met and sends you the link to the membership documents.
3
You return the completed and signed membership documents, including the representation agreements.
4
AKM and/or austro mechana confirm your membership in the respective society.
All you pay is a one-time admission fee only ⎯ neither AKM nor austro mechana charge a regular membership fee.
| AKM | austro mechana | |
|---|---|---|
|
Admission fee |
78 € |
55 € |
|
Students up to age 27 |
12 € |
12 € |
|
|
Charges including 20% VAT |
|
Upon your signature on the collection agreement contract, you entrust us with the fiduciary representation of your rights and claims. In order for us to do a thorough job of representing you, we recommend that you join both societies. The collection agreement contract applies to all works you have already created and will create in the future. The granting of rights is exclusive and for the entire world.
AKM’s collection agreement contract covers the performance right, the broadcasting right, and the right of making available to the public, as well as related remuneration claims.
Austro mechana’s collection agreement contract covers mechanical reproduction and distribution rights, as well as related remuneration claims.
We also take on social and cultural responsibilities, therein further promoting Austrian music creation.
FAQ
AKM and austro mechana ensure that musical authors and composers are fairly compensated when their works are used. We act as trustees, managing the rights of composers and music lyricists. We collaborate with our international sister organizations to ensure that royalties are collected worldwide. Music users can obtain the necessary licenses from us for a fee. We distribute the revenue to the musical authors and composers according to established rules.
Copyright law protects each of your works as your own intellectual property from the very moment you create it — no registration or application is required. To prevent your authorship from being stolen, it’s a good idea to gather together the evidence that you actually created your work at a specific point in time! Tip: send yourself the manuscript or the recording (on a data stick, etc.) of the work by registered mail and keep the envelope unopened to establish a record of the date, complete with the postmark on it. Keep any documentation related to the creation history of the work. If you are an AKM member, report each newly created work as soon as possible and upload an audio file — the work registration with AKM serves as proof of your authorship.
Music and linguistic works are protected until 70 years after the death of the author or the last living co-author.
A band cannot join, but the individual band members can — as long as they are also authors and not “just” performing artists.
Music and literary works can be used in different ways. For example, through public performance, through reproduction on paper (sheet music) or on a sound or video recording (CD, DVD, etc.), through distribution — sale, rental, lending — of sheet music and sound or picture recordings, through broadcast or through, that they are made available on networks (internet, mobile phone network, etc.). Depending on the respective option, the corresponding exploitation rights are referred to as the following:
Right to perform
Right to broadcast or right to make available to the public
Reproduction right
Right of distribution
The right to perform, broadcast and make available to the public is exercised by AKM, and the mechanical reproduction and distribution right is exercised by austro mechana.
Where we are not responsible, the rights must be exercised by the publisher or the author him/herself. For example, when printing music (graphic reproduction), when performing dramatic music works (so-called grand rights), when combining a musical work with a film or audiovisual production (“sync right”) or when editing or arranging a work.
