Campaigning and support to protect the rights and earnings of songwriters and composers.
The most prestigious celebrations of songwriters, composers and their champions.
If your music has been published in songbooks, sheet music or lyric compilations, it may be photocopied in schools, universities, libraries or other institutions abroad. In some countries, this kind of copying generates royalties for the songwriters and composers whose work is used.
While the UK doesn’t currently recognise this right in law, The Ivors Academy has agreements with collecting agencies in countries that do. These agencies gather reprographic royalties and, where possible, we distribute them to the UK songwriters and composers they belong to – whether or not you’re Academy members.
Copydan Writing
Kopinor
Bonus Copyright
Bonus Copyright
Finland: Kopiosto
We receive two types of reprographic royalties.
These are accompanied by data that helps us identify the writers or estates entitled to payment – currently received from Copydan in Denmark.
If you’re due royalties, we will contact you. Royalties are paid once your earnings reach the minimum threshold of £50.
If you believe you may be owed, please email copydan@ivorsacademy.com. We welcome enquiries from both members and non-members.
Agencies in Norway, Sweden and Finland do not collect detailed usage data, which means these royalties can’t be distributed directly to individuals. In agreement with the agencies, these funds are used to support The Ivors Academy’s work to empower songwriters and composers. They help fund education programmes, research, campaigning and advocacy that benefits the whole community.
Whether you’re a member or not, we work hard to make sure you receive the royalties you’ve earned. We cross-check data from agencies against PRS for Music, our own database and other public sources, and follow up with outreach to rightsholders.
If you think your music may have been copied in Denmark since 2015, we want to hear from you. You do not need to be an Academy member to claim.
Contact us: copydan@ivorsacademy.com
To cover our costs in researching, identifying and paying rightsholders, we apply an administration fee:
Copydan Writing is a collective management organisation in Denmark that licenses the copying of text and sheet music by schools, universities, and businesses. It ensures that writers are paid when their work is copied. The Ivors Academy acts as Copydan’s UK agent, distributing these royalties.
Through an agreement with Copydan, customers can easily and legally copy text and sheet music, while ensuring that the rightsholders are fairly paid for the use of their work.
This right does not exist under UK law: PRS and MCPS do not cover the copying of text and sheet music in this way. Copydan has therefore appointed The Ivors Academy (the trading name of BASCA: the British Association of Songwriters, Composers and Authors) to distribute these royalties on their behalf.
The Ivors Academy is not a collecting society and acts solely as Copydan Writing’s agent in the UK.
UK songwriters and composers whose work has been copied in Denmark since 2015. You may be a member of The Ivors Academy or not – we treat everyone equally in our efforts to find and pay rightsholders.
We distribute Copydan royalties twice a year – in July and again in January for any remaining balances.
Copydan provides The Ivors Academy with information about rightsholders alongside the royalty funds, based on their own methods of measuring and allocating payments. Sometimes this information includes details of the specific works used, and sometimes it only identifies the rightsholder.
We cross-reference this information against various databases - primarily our membership database and PRS for Music - and carry out desk research to identify rightsholders, contact them, and confirm the correct bank account details to send payments.
We make the same efforts to contact all rightsholders, whether or not they are members of The Ivors Academy. This work is carried out regularly throughout the year to ensure that if we are unable to reach a rightsholder initially, we continue making efforts to ensure they receive any royalties owed.
As this is an ongoing agreement with Copydan, rightsholders who have not earned royalties to date may still do so in the future.
The Ivors Academy is responsible for making all reasonable efforts to contact rightsholders who are due Copydan royalty payments. We report the details of these efforts to Copydan.
If, after three years of trying, we are unable to reach a rightsholder, the funds owed to them are classified as non-distributable revenue.
In line with our agreement with Copydan, these non-distributable royalties may be used to support activities that serve the general best interests of UK songwriters and composers.
Depending on how you manage your own accounting and tax returns, you may need to raise an invoice to account for the income you’ve received for your Copydan royalties. In the first instance, please contact your accountant for advice on this if you have one.
If you need to raise an invoice for VAT purposes, please raise this with zero-rated VAT to:
Copydan Writing, Bryggervangen 8, 2.sal, DK-2100 Copenhagen, Denmark
Danish VAT number: DK 18463504
You must include the following statement: “This supply is subject to the reverse charge.”
Send this invoice to copydan@ivorsacademy.com or by post to The Ivors Academy, 1 Upper James Street, London, W1F 9DE. Do not send your invoice directly to Copydan.
