Licensing

Music is all around us - in shops, cars, restaurants and on TV. Before making any copies it's important tounderstand the basic rules surrounding the reproduction (copying) of sound recordings.

ARIA provides licences on behalf of participating sound recording rights holders (ARIA Licensors) to individuals and organisations who wish to make legitimate reproductions of sound recordings for some specific limited purposes (such as commercial background music suppliers). Through our licensing services you can access a wide range of sound recordings from major record companies and independent labels.

You will almost always need a licence before reproducing any sound recordings, whether they are for a public performance or your own personal use (unless one of the very limited "fair dealing" exceptions in the Copyright Act applies). Copyright applies regardless of the source of the recording - whether you downloaded it from a legitimate internet site or copied it from a commercially available CD that you have purchased.

For those interested in the reproduction of sound recordings for private home video use, there is now a joint ARIA / AMCOS agreement to cater for this, administered by AMCOS. Please call AMCOS on (02) 9935-7900 for further information.

In this section you will find sound recording reproduction license application forms and answers to frequently asked licensing questions. If you still need further assistance, e-mail the licensing department at licensing.mail@aria.com.au, and we'll be happy to help.