Frequently Asked
Questions


Rights For Writers

Composition and lyrics are the music that generates performance royalties, mechanical royalties and others. You have exclusive rights over your music to control how they are used by users publicly played, broadcasted and streamed online.
Once you become a member with us, you authorise us to administer your registered music. We can assist you by monitoring the usage of your music in public performances, enabling you to earn royalties.
While a songwriter creates music, a publisher normally engaged in publishing deal by contributing to the creation of musical work by offering services, such as promoting the songwriter, pitching the songwriter's musical work to other creators, and arranging collaborations with other songwriters. They may also negotiate splits on behalf of their songwriters. Music publishers also act as a collaborator with other key professional music industry players to complements the commercial potential of the songwriter's work.

Music publisher is responsible for the data that contains identifiers that covers the covers the songwriters identity, share split and copyright ownership of the world. This will be used to track usage of musical works and managing of royalty payment by MACP.

There are also instances where the music creators is an independent creator without music publishers. They will take on the role of music publishers and self-publish their work. Please see No. 4 for further explanation on self-published writer.
Yes. You can join as a self-published writer. Normally, the mechanical royalties will be taken care by publisher when music featuring your composition is reproduced. Otherwise, this portion is left uncollected unless you wish us to help. Please reach out to our Members, Communication & Public Affairs Team
Copyright protection subsists the moment you created your music in material form. Copyright is granted automatically, no formalities as registration are not required for copyright protection. You need to join us as a member to register your works with us.

Joining MACP

Anyone who writes, creates, composes or publishes music, can join MACP as a member. Check here to see our Membership Criteria (Join as a Writer & Join as a Publisher)
Our membership is FREE!
Yes, you can join us as long as you meet the criteria for Foreign Writer. Click here to view Membership criteria (Join as a Writer & Join as a Publisher)
Your completed application will be reviewed and approved by the Board of Directors. Click here to view Membership Flow Chart
You can only belong to one CMO at a time as our writer member for your public performing rights. However, if you are a songwriter and a performer, you may join other local CMOs representing performers rights such as Recording Performers Malaysia (RPM).

Alternatively, if you are a record producing company, you can be a member of Public Performance Malaysia (PPM).
Your application will be reviewed during Board of Directors' meeting that will be held four times a year. Your submission will be approved in one of the meetings.

Membership

Interested Party Information (IPI) Number is an international identification number assigned to songwriters, composers and music publishers. Most of the collective management organisation (CMO) including us use IPI Numbers to link you with your music, so we can track the performance of your music and pay royalties to you.
An IPI Number is generally assigned within SEVEN (7) business days after you join MACP. Once it's assigned, you will find it listed in your Member Access account.

Please note that IPI Numbers aren't assigned by MACP - they are assigned on behalf of the International Confederation of Societies of Authors and Composers (CISAC).
No. The IPI Number serves as an identification number allocated to songwriters, composers, and music publishers worldwide. Conversely, the membership number functions as the MACP's reference number once you have officially become our member.
You may use your IPI Number to identify your music across all CMOs and also to log in your members' portal.
No, you have a unique IPI number assigned to each of your MACP memberships.
No. They are not the same. The IPI Number functions as the international identification number, where as the IP Name Number is a code assigned to a name or pseudonym associated with you. As a member, you can only have one IPI Number, but you can have several IP Name Number, depending on the numbers of your pseudonym(s) you register.
Once you have become a member, you will gain access to MyKarya or MyKarya app, an exclusive members’ portal designed to facilitate members in registering songs, updating data, monitoring of registered songs, and tracking royalty distribution.

Additionally, you will have the opportunity to participate in workshops, seminars, dinners, award ceremony and even our WeCare Programme. Explore the Perks of Joining Us to discover more about the advantages of membership.
You may request for termination and we will review your request. Simply log in to your MyKarya and follow the following steps:
  1. Log in to your MyKarya
  1. Go to your Dashboard
  1. Select the My Membership > View Status
  1. Click Terminate My Membership
  1. Follow the steps

Works Registration

To ensure you receive royalties when your music is used, it is necessary for you to register your music through our Members’ Portal, MyKarya.

If you have not registered as a member yet, please fill out the Membership Form.
Yes. Each music needs to be registered separately for both writers and publishers.
If your music remains actively used in public and can be identified before the next distribution, we can retroactively credit you up to one year for missed royalties.
You may check your registered music on MyKarya after 5 working days after the registration.
Yes, in order to receive royalties for performance of your music, every writer must register and provide all the information required.
A sub-publisher is a company engaged by a rights holder to license and administer its work in a specific territory.

If you have an agreement with another publisher, and you are unsure of how to list them when you are registering your music with us, contact the publisher. Often it is part of the admin or publishers responsibilities to register music with us on your behalf.

Distribution And Royalty

We license businesses, organisations and individuals for the music they use. We collect music data from various sources like TV, radio, businesses, live events and streaming platforms. After that, we auto match data for those music and compositions in our database. Music that is not auto-matched will be checked manually by our team. After gathering all the information, we calculate the royalties based on our Distribution Policy Rules and then distribute the royalties to the right owners.
We collect performing and digital royalties when music is used in places such as:
  • Television
  • Radio
  • Businesses
  • Streaming platforms
  • Live venues and events
  • Cinema


In the event of music is played outside of our territory, we are still able to collect royalties through our collaboration with our International Affiliated Organisations.
We distribute royalties from both local and international more than four times a year. Check When Do You Get Paid to find out more.
You can log in to your MyKarya or MyKarya App , to track your royalty earnings, view your music usage and monitor royalty distribution for your music.
You can review the lists of unidentified music in your MyKarya and notify us if you can identify any of the music tracks. If the music is identified before the next distribution, we will distribute the royalty to the rightful owner. If not, we will plough back the royalty into the same category and distribute it to those in the same category.
To ensure you receive your royalty, make sure to regularly update your personal information and register your new music on MyKarya timely. This helps us keep track of your music and ensures timely payment of your royalty.
You can register the music, indicating the ownership shares, and we will distribute your royalty portion to you if we license the usage. Your co-writer, unfortunately, will not get their royalties until they join us or our affiliated organisations.

Overseas Royalties

If your music is sub-published in foreign territories, it is the responsibility of your sub-publisher to register your music with the relevant collective management organisation (CMO) in that territory. This may happen in a number of ways i.e. through Common Work Registration (CWR) files, online registration, email etc.

If your music is not sub-published, the CMO in foreign territories can obtain the details of your music through an international tool called CIS-Net where we will share all music information.
First make sure your music is registered with us. We will collect your international royalties through our reciprocal arrangement with our International Affiliated Organisations in other territories. If you meet the payment thresholds as directed by the collective management organisation (CMO) in each territory, then your international royalties will be directed to us on your behalf. Keep in mind, there are different rules in each territory and not every territory collects royalties for every use.
No. We do not charge administration fees on international royalties.
If your music is performed in a country where we have no reciprocal arrangement, you receive no royalty from us for the performance.

YouTube

If your music is monetised on YouTube, you can expect to receive royalties for it. Ensuring that your music, along with all important metadata, is promptly and appropriately uploaded on YouTube is crucial. Typically, this task is handled by your music company or an aggregator.

Royalties for your music on YouTube are contingent upon meeting the following criteria:
  1. Your music video must have at least one advertisement associated with it.
  1. Your music must be uploaded to YouTube by your music company or an aggregator.
  1. The correct metadata must be attached to your music company or aggregator. (Please note that we cannot assist you in ensuring your music is uploaded with the correct data on YouTube).
In most cases, it is likely that your music is not monetised or the monetised amount does not meet the minimum payout threshold by YouTube.
The royalty for a music video on YouTube is determined by the number of streams, and the advertising revenue generated by the specific video. It's important to note that advertising revenues for a music video can vary significantly, as different quantities and types of advertisements may be associated with it.

The more your music is monetised by YouTube, the greater the royalties you can expect to receive for it. However, although it is in YouTube's interest to maximise the utilisation of your music, they are not obligated to do so. Advertising revenue is a prevalent method of monetising music on digital platforms.
YouTube utilises their state-of-the-art technology to track, record and provide us usage reports which shall also form basis of our distribution to members in accordance with Distribution Policy Rules.

For music not published by music companies, YouTube depends on the metadata uploaded with the video by your aggregator.
We directly collect music used in Malaysia only. The royalties for the use of music overseas will still be collected, albeit via our affiliated organisations.

Music Users FAQ

MACP offers various licences for your use:
  • Licences to use live and/or recorded music (including background music on a CD, radio or stream online) in business settings like restaurant, lounge, store, etc and to be renewed annually.
  • Licences for use the live and/or recorded music (including background music on a CD, radio or stream online) in events such as concerts, carnivals, dinners, wedding etc.
  • Licences for online usage such as Website, Social Media, Streaming Services, Downloading Services, User-Generated Content, General Entertainment Over-the-Top and Internet.
  • Licences for broadcast stations such as Terrestrial radio and television, and Satellite radio and television.


If you are still unsure which MACPLicence you need, please contact us.
Your subscription with these platforms and similar services only allows you to use them in your personal capacity. A MACPLicence allows you to play those subscription music in a public setting and the fees vary depending on your usage.
We cover a wide repertoire, which consists of majority of copyrighted music. However, music that is no longer protected by copyright, not assigned to us/directly licensed and royalty-free or royalty-paid are not covered by a MACPLicence.

If you are uncertain whether a piece of music is covered by us, please contact us for further clarification.
Yes, but it is common that many music is mistaken as royalty-free when it is not.

To ensure that you are able to use music without any trouble, you may provide us with details of the music supplier for us to verify and advice you from there.
The common reasons for this could be (a) your failure to obtain a synchronisation licence or (b) your content is not in compliance with the platform rules or terms and conditions.
Yes. We have a reciprocal agreement with our international Affiliated Organisations that covers the vast majority of copyrighted music globally.
The Copyright Act 1987 empowers us to collect royalties on behalf of our members who are songwriters and music publishers. For overseas songwriters, it is the reciprocal agreements with our International Affiliated Organisations that allow us to collect licence fees and issue licences on behalf of their members through them.

The purpose of this arrangement is to ease the licensing process to legally use an array of copyrighted music without having to deal with all the individual copyright owners directly.
We do not currently license on a song-by-song basis. A MACPLicence is a blanket licence that allows you to use all of our local and international music once a licence is issued to you. Yes, an all-you-can-use buffet of music!
No. If you have changed your business name or registration number, a new MACPLicence will be required.