Distribution & payments
We collect licensing fees across our schemes and distribute revenue to Rightsholders based on sampled usage data.
How payments work
We collect licensing fees from schools, universities, ITPs, Wānanga, PTEs, businesses, auction houses, and other organisations throughout the year. After deducting operating costs, we distribute the revenue to the Rightsholders of the works that have been copied. Payment amounts are based on sampled usage data. Payment reflects copying patterns across the organisations we licence rather than individual transactions.
Royalties are payments made by a publisher to an author based on sales of their work. Distribution payments are separate. They’re the fees Tāwhia collects from licensed organisations that copy published works.
When you get paid
New Zealand revenue – July/August each year.
Overseas revenue – Twice a year: February and August each year.
Visual arts – Quarterly, from our Auction House Licensing Scheme.
Authors’ Licensing and Collecting Society UK (ALCS) – Twice a year: March/April and September/October.
How distributions are calculated
For blanket licensing schemes, we pool the net funds from each licence category and divide them based on copying records. The more a work is copied, the larger the share of the distribution pool.
For overseas licensing revenue, copyright clearances and visual arts, we deduct 20% for administration expenses and distribute 80% directly to Rightsholders.
We also allocate 2% of blanket licensing revenue to the Cultural Fund and up to 1% to the Legal Reserve Fund. The Legal Reserve Fund has a cap of $400,000 and deductions are only made to replenish the fund if it is below this amount.
For detailed information, see our Distribution Policy.
Who receives distribution payments?
Tāwhia Copyright Aotearoa currently makes distribution payments to Rightsholders. “Rightsholders” meaning the person who owns or controls copyright in the work for the purposes of collective licensing. Your publishing contract may specify who holds the copyright, or rather who holds the relevant aspect of copyright (sometimes called the ‘reprographic right’ or sometimes described as ‘secondary’ or ‘subsidiary rights’ or ‘rights to licence’). Depending on your publishing contract, the Rightsholder may be publishers, authors, or visual artists (or a combination).
Before paying, we make sure Rightsholders properly verify themselves through a 3-step confirmation process.
- First, they must give a warranty that they have the full power and authority to grant the relevant rights, and that the information they provide is true and not misleading.
- Second, they then perform a ‘Rights Confirmation’ twice in respect of each work (via the MyCopyright Portal), where they confirm ownership or control of the relevant rights.
- Third, before claiming a distribution payment, they must give a legal undertaking to share the distribution payment with any other contributors or persons holding rights or entitlements in the works according to contractual entitlements, and to notify them promptly that the royalty has been generated by Tāwhia Copyright Aotearoa licences.
For example, the publishing contract will determine the amount owed to each third party either by specifying the share the author(s), visual artist(s) and publisher are entitled to, or (in some cases) taking all the rights in the works.
Didn’t receive funds?
Distribution payments are based on data collected from licence holders on what works have been copied. This means the payments can fluctuate year to year depending on what has been copied under our licenses.
- The distribution payment may be payable to a different Rightsholder
(eg. your publisher, who may be obliged to share it with you) - The distribution amount was below the minimum threshold for notification
If you have questions about distributions, please contact us.
Keeping your details current
Register for MyCopyright to update your contact information, banking details, and work records so we can pay you without delays.
We can tell you how many times your work has been copied and in which sector. Contact us and we’ll provide aggregated data. We’re unable to identify the individual organisations where copying was recorded.
If you’re a registered Rightsholder, your MyCopyright portal shows sector and year for any distribution payments made to you.
Tāwhia team 2026
Photo ©TCA
