Guides

Music publishing in Hong Kong

How music publishing actually works in Hong Kong: 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 and mechanical: CASH. Sync: direct.

Copyright registration in Hong Kong

Automatic under Berne; no registry.

Setting up to claim publishing rights

CASH admits publishers in the common-law pattern it inherited from PRS; foreign catalogs typically operate via Hong Kong sub-publishers, who historically also serve as a gateway for Greater China deals.

The societies

CASH — 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 Hong Kong can be checked free on the validator · more: setting up country by country · which societies accept CWR.

Check a CWR file free — errors and warnings tied to the exact line, nothing stored: cwrcheck.com.