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Allocation of your rights

Copyright
How are your royalties distributed?

As soon as we have billed the users of your repertoire for your royalties, we will, of course, also handle the distribution of those royalties.

We do this based on:

  • the playlists and broadcast lists we receive from users
  • the distribution keys that you - along with any co-authors - specified when you registered your work

Read more about the allocation and distribution of royalties in our General Regulations.

You can see which rights you receive each month in our clear payment schedule:

Payment Schedule 2026 - Music

Payment Schedule 2026 - Text & Visuals
Curious about the basis on which Sabam collects royalties for the use of your repertoire? Read all about it on the website of Unisono.

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Statements
Sending royalty statements

Sabam generally sends your statement electronically.

Would you prefer to receive your statement on paper by mail? That’s possible, provided you meetthe following three conditions:

  1. You do not have a MySabam account
  2. The amount to be paid is at least 25 euros
  3. The statement is no more than 40 pages (front and back)

If you do not meet these three conditions, we will only send your statement by mail upon your explicit request. Furthermore, this request must be submitted each time for every statement that does not meet the above conditions.

We always send paper statements and correspondence in a single copy. In exceptional cases, a duplicate may be sent by email, upon request and subject to payment of administrative fees set by the governing body.

Are you an author?

Would you like us to send your correspondence and paper statements (if permitted) to your manager? Or would you like your manager to have access to your statements via MySabam?

If so, you can submit a written request to our services.

To avoid conflicts of interest, your manager may not be your publisher or have any affiliation with your publisher.

If at any time you no longer wish for us to share your information with your manager, or for your manager to have access to your statements via MySabam, you must notify us in writing.

In exceptional cases, a duplicate may be sent by email, upon request and subject to payment of administrative fees set by the governing body.

Are you a publisher?

Would you like us to send your correspondence and paper statements ( if permitted) to another publisher who will take over the management of your catalog? Or would you like that person to have access to your statements via MySabam?
If so, you can submit a written request to our services, for example via email.
If at any time you no longer wish for us to share your information with that publisher, or for that publisher to have access to your statements via MySabam, you must notify us in writing.
In exceptional cases, a duplicate may be sent by email, upon request and subject to payment of administrative fees set by the governing body.

Management fees

Sabam charges a commission on the royalties we collect for you.

What is this fee for? It covers the costs associated with managing your rights. It also allows us to continue investing in simpler and more efficient processes.

Good news for you: this way, we’re making the management of your rights easier and more affordable, step by step.

The commission rates vary by type of copyright. They are set annually by the governing body or determined based on international agreements.

In addition, we also cover our operating costs through returns on the investment of royalty revenues. Read more about this in Article 4 of Part I (General Provisions) of the General Regulations.

Finally, we withhold a solidarity contribution from your royalties for social, cultural, and educational purposes.

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Distribution
Allocation of rights that are definitively indivisible

Sometimes we are unable to assign certain copyrights to a rights holder.

If this is still not possible 36 months after the end of the fiscal year in which the invoicing took place, these rights are included in a specific annual distribution.

We refer to these rights as definitively non-distributable rights. They are allocated, by distribution type, to all rights holders within that same distribution.

Your share is calculated based on the royalties you received in that same year within that distribution.

Want to know more?
See Article 35 of Part I (General Provisions) of the General Regulations.

RIGHTS

Your rights abroad

As a Sabam member, your copyrights are represented not only in Belgium but also abroad.

This is done through the foreign authors’ associations with which we have concluded reciprocal agreements. They ensure that your royalties are collected when your work is used in their territory.

Those royalties are then transferred to Sabam so that we can pay them out to you.

Would you like to learn more about your rights abroad?
View the list of countries with which we have reciprocal agreements: Overview of Reciprocity Agreements

ABROAD