In 1992, Congress passed the landmark Audio Home Recording Act (AHRA), which amended the U.S. Copyright Law to require electronics manufacturers and importers to pay royalties on consumer digital audio recording devices (hardware) and digital audio recording media (blank recordable tapes and discs) manufactured and distributed in the United States or imported into and distributed in the United States. Music publishers are entitled to a portion of the monies collected under the AHRA, and The Harry Fox Agency (HFA) is the primary agent authorized to distribute these royalties to music publishers.

Manufacturers and importers of digital audio recording devices or blank media are required to deposit the specified royalty payments with the U.S. Copyright Office on a quarterly basis. In general, the level of required royalty payment under the AHRA is 2% of wholesale price or import value for digital audio recording devices, and 3% of the wholesale price or import value for digital audio recording media. One-third of the royalty payments are allocated to music publishers and songwriters, and this amount is split 50-50 between the two groups. These royalties are then distributed to HFA on a periodic basis (generally every 2-3 years), which HFA then distributes to its affiliated publishers based on market share during that period.

A publisher does not have to affiliate with HFA for any other licensing or royalty collection activity in order for HFA to collect and distribute AHRA royalties to you. You will be asked to provide an accounting of your mechanical royalty collections so your pro-rata share of the AHRA funds can be properly distributed to you. In return for administering this activity, HFA takes its standard commission of distributed royalties. Click here to download an AHRA-Only HFA Affiliation Form.

If you are already an HFA-affiliated publisher and are unsure if you authorized HFA to handle AHRA royalties for you, please contact HFA Publisher Services at 212-834-0100 or email publisherservices@harryfox.com.