Autoren, Komponisten und Musikverleger

Austria • ViennaFounded 1897

AKM is the Austrian performing rights organization representing authors, composers, and music publishers. It collects and distributes performance royalties for public performances of musical works across Austria.

Contact & HQ

Headquarters

Schottenfeldgasse 3, Vienna

info@akm.at

Territories

Austria

Royalty Rates

No royalty rate information available.

Affiliated Societies

CISAC
GEMA
SUISA

AKM (Autoren, Komponisten und Musikverleger) is Austria's primary performing rights organization, founded in 1897 and headquartered in Vienna. It operates as a state-approved registered cooperative (registrierte Genossenschaft m.b.H.) that collects and distributes performance royalties on behalf of songwriters, composers, and music publishers when their works are performed publicly in Austria.

How AKM Works

AKM issues blanket licenses to businesses that play music publicly, including radio stations, television broadcasters, streaming platforms, concert venues, restaurants, hotels, and retail stores. The organization collects licensing fees and distributes them to its members based on usage data gathered through broadcast monitoring, live performance setlists, and digital streaming reports.

Members register their musical works with AKM, providing details such as song titles, writer splits, and publisher information. AKM then tracks performances of those works and distributes royalties accordingly. The organization operates under Austrian copyright law and works closely with neighboring rights societies to ensure comprehensive royalty collection.

AKM maintains reciprocal agreements with performing rights organizations worldwide through its CISAC membership. This means that when an AKM member's music is performed in Germany, Switzerland, the United States, or any other country with a CISAC-affiliated PRO, AKM can collect those royalties on the member's behalf.

Real-World Example

An Austrian songwriter registers a song with AKM in January 2026, listing themselves as 100% writer and 100% publisher. The song gets played on Austrian radio station OE3 approximately 200 times throughout the year, streamed on Spotify 50,000 times by Austrian users, and performed live at a venue in Salzburg.

AKM collects royalties from OE3's broadcasting license fee, from Spotify's streaming license, and from the Salzburg venue's blanket license. The songwriter receives their writer share and publisher share (typically split 50/50) in AKM's distribution cycles. If the same song also gets airplay in Germany, AKM's reciprocal agreement with GEMA ensures the German royalties are collected and forwarded back to the songwriter through AKM.

Why It Matters for Independent Artists

If you write music and live in Austria, joining AKM is one of the first business steps you should take. Without AKM membership, you cannot collect performance royalties generated when your music plays on Austrian radio, television, streaming services, or in public venues.

Austrian producers and songwriters should also understand that AKM only collects performance royalties. It does not handle mechanical royalties from physical sales or downloads (those are collected by Austro Mechana). It does not collect neighboring rights for master recording performances. You need separate organizations for those revenue streams.

For a complete walkthrough of the registration process, read our guide on how to register music with a PRO. You can also compare PROs worldwide using our PRO comparison guide or browse the full PRO directory.