Distributions and payments

What: from New Zealand licence fees
When: between August/September each year

This distribution is completed once a year and is for all funds collected domestically from licence fees. Usage data is collected throughout the year and is validated by our Research and Data entry team. One of our biggest challenges is tracking down Rightsholders (owners of the creative works copied), so we encourage you to keep your records up to date with us (including contact details and banking information).

What: from overseas licence fees
When: twice a year, between March/April and October/November each year

This distribution is completed twice a year and is for all funds we receive from overseas RRO organisations like ours (Reproduction Rights Organisations) that we have agreements with (excluding UK-based ALCS - Author's Licensing and Collecting Society Ltd). This means that if you’re a New Zealand Rightsholder and your publication is copied under licence overseas in a country that has an agreement with us, the local RRO will send the funds to us and we will distribute these back to you.

Find out which organisations and countries we have agreements with here.

What: from our Auction House Licensing Scheme
When: on a quarterly basis

Our visual arts distributions are payable to visual artists who have signed a Rights Agreement and are registered with us. Through our Auction House Licensing Scheme, registered visual artists get paid when their art is reproduced in advertising and promotional materials on the secondary art market. You can read more about this here.

What: from UK-based ALCS revenue
When: twice a year, between February/March and September/October

While our general distribution of monies to Rightsholders occur throughout the year, we also make additional distributions on behalf of the UK-based Author’s Licensing and Collecting Society Ltd (ALCS). We have an agreement with ALCS to act as their agent and receive and distribute royalties collected and held by ALCS where these are due to New Zealand writers.

For Blanket Licensing Schemes
The net funds we receive from each licence category are put aside into distribution pools. These funds are then allocated according to the copying records we receive from licence holders. We divide the total value in each distribution pool by the total number of pages in that pools’ copying records. This gives us a page-rate. The number of pages of each rightsholder’s works that have been copied in that pool are then multiplied by the page rate to give a sum owing from the pool.

For Visual Arts, Overseas Revenue and Copyright Clearance
We deduct a flat rate of 20% from all licensing transactions, to cover our administration running costs. The remaining 80% is paid directly to the rightsholder of the works that have been copied.

For a full understanding of the distribution process, check out our Distribution Policy (pdf) here.

The revenue we collect from licensing, after operating costs, is distributed to the rightsholders of the works copied. A small percentage amount is deducted from the gross distributable funds we receive each year. These fees and costs are detailed in our Distribution Policy, and are for operating costs incurred in the processing and distribution of the revenue received.

We also allocate 2% of revenue to the Copyright Licensing Cultural Fund and 1% of revenue to the Copyright Licensing Legal Reserve Fund from blanket licensing schemes (revenue from visual arts, overseas revenue and copyright clearance are managed differently).

For detailed information about our administrative charges and other costs, please read our Distribution Policy (pdf) here.

Photo by Jon Tyson on Unsplash