Société d'Auteurs Belge – Belgische Auteurs Maatschappij

SABAM (Société d'Auteurs Belge / Belgische Auteurs Maatschappij) is a Belgian collective management organization founded in 1922 that represents over 45,000 authors, composers, and publishers across music, literature, visual arts, theatre, and audiovisual works. It collects royalties for the public performance, broadcasting, streaming, and reproduction of its members' works in Belgium and distributes them based on usage data.

How SABAM Works

SABAM operates as a cooperative company (CVBA), meaning it is owned and governed by its members rather than by outside investors. This is unusual among European collecting societies. Members include songwriters, composers, publishers, novelists, poets, playwrights, choreographers, filmmakers, photographers, sculptors, painters, and architects. This multidisciplinary scope makes SABAM virtually unique worldwide, as most PROs handle only music rights.

SABAM issues blanket licenses to radio stations, television networks, streaming platforms, concert venues, restaurants, retail stores, cinemas, and any business that plays music or displays copyrighted works publicly. License fees are collected and distributed to members based on performance data gathered through airplay monitoring, cue sheets, streaming usage reports, and direct usage declarations.

The organization takes a management commission on the royalties it collects to cover operating costs. Commission percentages vary by rights type and are determined annually by the governing body or established through international agreements. SABAM also withholds a solidarity deduction from royalties to fund social, cultural, and educational programs for members.

SABAM distributes royalties on a regular schedule. Royalties that cannot be assigned to a specific rights holder within 36 months after the end of the financial year in which invoicing occurred are redistributed pro rata to all rights holders in that distribution category. This prevents revenue from being lost to the system.

Through reciprocal agreements with sister organizations worldwide (such as GEMA in Germany, SACEM in France, BUMA/Stemra in the Netherlands, ASCAP and BMI in the United States), SABAM collects royalties for its members when their works are performed abroad. Foreign societies invoice locally and transfer the collected rights back to SABAM for distribution.

In 2025, SABAM supported more than 1,000 local cultural initiatives in Belgium, reinvesting in the creative community through grants and funding programs.

Real-World Example

A Belgian songwriter joins SABAM and registers 30 songs. A Brussels radio station plays 8 of those songs in a given quarter, Spotify reports 200,000 streams of 12 songs, and three cafes hold SABAM blanket licenses that cover background music. SABAM collects royalties from all three sources.

The songwriter receives a distribution based on the radio airplay logs and streaming usage data. If the same songs are played on radio in France, SABAM's reciprocal agreement with SACEM means SACEM collects those royalties locally and transfers them to SABAM, which distributes them to the songwriter in the next international distribution cycle.

Because SABAM is a cooperative, the songwriter also has voting rights in the organization's governance. They can participate in general assemblies and elect the board of directors. This gives members direct influence over how the organization operates and how commission rates are set.

A Belgian composer with 50 registered works receiving regular airplay on national radio and moderate streaming activity might earn anywhere from EUR 2,000 to EUR 40,000 annually in SABAM royalties, depending on the scale of usage and the applicable commission rates.

Why It Matters for Independent Artists

If you are a Belgian creator in any discipline (music, literature, visual arts, audiovisual, or performing arts), SABAM is the primary organization for collecting your royalties in Belgium. Unlike most PROs that handle only music, SABAM covers the full spectrum of creative works, which is an advantage if you work across multiple disciplines.

Membership requires that you have at least one work that has been publicly performed, broadcast, or distributed. You can join online through the SABAM website. Once accepted, register every work with complete metadata: title, writers, publishers, ownership splits, ISRC codes, and ISWC numbers. Unregistered works earn zero royalties, even if they receive thousands of plays.

If your music is performed internationally, SABAM's reciprocal agreements with over 100 foreign societies mean those royalties flow back to you. You do not need to join a separate PRO in each country. However, the foreign society determines its own rates, so international royalties may differ from domestic distributions.

SABAM also offers social support programs, legal advice, and cultural project funding for members. The solidarity fund provides assistance to members facing financial hardship, and the cultural action program funds creation, production, and distribution projects across Belgium.

Related Resources

• Performing Rights Organizations (PRO) - What a PRO is and how it functions
• Performance Royalties - How performance royalties are generated and collected
• Mechanical Royalties - How mechanical royalties differ from performance royalties
• Blanket License - The licensing model used by SABAM
• Collective Management Organization (CMO) - How CMOs operate globally
• SABAM Official Website - Visit SABAM for membership and licensing information
• Use our Streaming Royalty Calculator to estimate your digital earnings