ALBAUTOR

Albania • TiranaFounded 1992

ALBAUTOR is a collective management organization in Albania that manages and protects authors’ rights, including licensing and royalty collection for music and other works.

Contact & HQ

Headquarters

Tirana, Albania

Territories

Albania

Royalty Rates

No royalty rate information available.

Affiliated Societies

CISAC

ALBAUTOR (Agjensia Shqiptare e Autorve) is Albania's first and primary collective management organization for creators' rights. Founded in 1992 and headquartered in Tirana, it administers musical, dramatic, literary, and AGP (Arts of Graphic and Plastic) rights. ALBAUTOR is licensed by the Albanian Ministry of Culture as the sole representative of creators' rights in the Republic of Albania.

How ALBAUTOR Works

ALBAUTOR operates under Albanian copyright law (Law No. 35/2016, "On Copyright and Related Rights"). The organization was restructured in 2015 with new leadership selected to build a fair and legal system for collecting copyright fees and distributing revenue to rights holders.

As a CISAC member since 1993, ALBAUTOR integrates Albanian creators' works into the global system of collective management organizations. This means ALBAUTOR represents the rights of Albanian creators internationally and protects the works of foreign creators within Albanian territory. The organization represents rights holders registered in approximately 239 collective management organizations across 123+ countries.

ALBAUTOR issues licenses to businesses that use protected works in Albania, including radio stations, television broadcasters, venues, restaurants, and other establishments. The collected fees are distributed to registered rights holders based on usage data.

Real-World Example

An Albanian composer writes a song that gets regular airplay on Albanian radio stations and is performed at live concerts in Tirana. They register the work with ALBAUTOR, providing the song title, composer information, and publisher details. ALBAUTOR collects licensing fees from the radio stations and concert venues through its blanket licensing program.

If the same song gets performed in neighboring countries like Italy or Greece, ALBAUTOR's CISAC membership allows it to collect those international royalties through reciprocal agreements with Italian society SIAE and Greek society AUTODIA. The composer receives both domestic and international royalties through a single ALBAUTOR account.

Why It Matters for Independent Artists

If you are an Albanian songwriter, composer, or publisher, joining ALBAUTOR is the only way to collect performance royalties for your works performed publicly in Albania. The organization holds a government-licensed monopoly as the sole collective management body in the country, meaning no other organization can collect these royalties on your behalf within Albanian territory.

Albanian creators should also understand that ALBAUTOR manages multiple repertoires beyond music, including dramatic and literary works. For music creators specifically, ALBAUTOR covers performance royalties but does not handle mechanical royalties or neighboring rights. You need separate arrangements for those revenue streams.

The CISAC membership is particularly valuable for Albanian artists whose music crosses borders. Without ALBAUTOR's international network, individual creators would have no practical way to track and collect royalties from performances in other countries. Read our guide on all the music royalties you should be collecting to understand the full picture.