Guides

Music publishing in Austria

How music publishing actually works in Austria: who claims which rights, what the national copyright system does, and what it takes for a publisher to set up and collect.

Who claims which rights

Performance: AKM. Mechanicals: austro mechana. Sync: direct.

Copyright registration in Austria

Automatic under Berne; no registry.

Setting up to claim publishing rights

The paired societies admit publishers in the GEMA pattern; many foreign catalogs are simply covered by their German sub-publishing arrangements extended to Austria (a standard GAS — Germany/Austria/Switzerland — territory deal).

The societies

AKM / austro mechana — each linked page covers the society’s history and how registrations reach it.

Rules, fees, and society requirements change, and none of this is legal advice — confirm current requirements with the society or local counsel before committing. Registrations bound for Austria can be checked free on the validator · more: setting up country by country · which societies accept CWR.

Two free checks for your CWR file. Is the file correct? Every record, share and control total against the spec, each problem on its exact line. Do its writers match their registrations? Every writer cross-checked against public registration data, including works registered under another spelling or IPI. Nothing stored: check a file at cwrcheck.com.