Releasing
Releasing music in Australia
How Australian artists release work without inventing chart rules: register the song, identify the recording, write the credits, then pick a distributor.
Work
Register the song with APRA AMCOS
Recording
Identify the master, often with an ISRC
Credits
Splits that add to 100 percent
Delivery
Distributor last, not first
Hubs
A release is a packet of rights and a packet of files. Campaigns fail when people invert the order: they pick a distributor, pick a Friday, and only then ask who wrote the bridge.
This hub keeps the order boring.
1. The work
APRA AMCOS states that copyright is automatic when a song is written down or recorded. Registration does not create the copyright. Registration makes the work matchable when a licensee reports a use.
Their registration guide asks for title, performer if relevant, duration, contributors, roles, and splits that total 100 percent. An ISRC can be added to help matching; it is not required to register the work. If a publisher represents you, they may register on your behalf — confirm rather than double-file blindly.
The long version is registering works with APRA AMCOS.
2. The recording
The master is a separate copyright. Featured Australian artists and labels dealing with public performance of recordings look to PPCA. PPCA explains that you can and should register with both PPCA and APRA if you write and perform.
Identify each sound recording. In practice that usually means an ISRC. APRA AMCOS notes that ISRCs help matching and that they do not issue them; Australian recordings commonly obtain them via ARIA or another authorised issuer. Do not invent a code. Do not reuse a code on a new master.
If two mixes exist — radio and album, or a later remaster — treat them as recordings that may need distinct identities. Your distributor’s current help page is the operational source for how they want that expressed.
3. The credits you can defend
Write a one-page credit sheet before anyone uploads:
- Legal names and performing names
- Writer splits
- Publisher names if any
- Featured performers
- Producer, engineer, mixer, mastering engineer
- Artwork author
- Sample or interpolation clearances, or an explicit “none”
The Arts Law Centre of Australia is the public briefing on why these lines matter. This site will not invent a “standard split”. If four writers intend 25 percent each, write 25 percent each. If they do not, do not ship.
4. Distribution is delivery
A distributor ingests audio, metadata and artwork and routes them to stores and platforms. That is a service relationship. Read the agreement for:
- Term and take-down
- Who is paid, in which currency, and how you see statements
- Whether they claim publishing administration (many do not; some extras do)
- Content-ID or similar claims on video platforms
- What happens if a credit is wrong after release
We will not name a “best” distributor. The fit depends on whether you need a label services bundle, a simple upload, or a local partner who already accounts to you.
Operational detail lives in distribution and metadata.
Charts, awards and other people’s leaderboards
ARIA operates the ARIA Charts and the ARIA Awards. Eligibility and methodology are ARIA’s to publish. This site will not reconstruct them from memory and will not invent a sales threshold. If a chart question matters to a release plan, read ARIA’s current documentation.
Guest posts that explain metadata hygiene, education-resource licensing, or how to log a community-radio play are welcome. Guest posts that promise a chart position are not.
Cover songs, public domain, and the sentence people skip
Recording a composition you did not write is not “content”. It is a use of a work. Mechanical licensing and permission rules depend on the work’s ownership and the territory. This site will not invent a blanket that “covers are fine if you change 30 percent”. That folklore has hurt people.
If the work is truly in the public domain, write down why you believe that (death dates, publication, territory) and still expect the recording to have a new copyright that is yours or your label’s.
If you interpolate a melody, assume you need a conversation with the work’s owners. Credit is not clearance.
Campaign week is not a rights strategy
Playlists, street press, and community radio can wait until the packet is true. A campaign that starts while the split is still a group chat will spend its only week on amendments. Put the campaign tools after metadata.
Neighbourhood of the release
A release week also touches photos (galleries), live dates (touring), and careers (who is being paid). If any of those are fictional on the credit sheet, the release is already in debt. Finish the packet first.
Register the work. Identify the master. Then pick a Friday.
What people ask
Questions, answered first
- How do I release music in Australia?
- Finish a master, register the work, attach recording identifiers and credits, choose a distributor, and keep a written record of who owns what.
- Do I need both APRA AMCOS and PPCA?
- If you write songs, register with APRA AMCOS; if you perform on recordings you own or feature on, register with PPCA as well — they pay different rights.
- What is an ISRC?
- An ISRC is a unique identifier for a specific sound recording or music video, used to match plays and sales back to the right recording.
Register the work before the campaign
A release date is easier to move than an incorrect writer split that has already shipped to stores.
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