Can you beat £3700 £6400 from collecting society ALCS?

EVERY LITTLE helps in these challenging times. Or, for some freelances, a lot helps even more. Among members of the NBT music writers network, one has just received £3700 from the Authors' Licensing and Collecting Society (ALCS) for secondary uses of their articles such as photocopying in university libraries.

Several others reported sums in the lower £3000s, which was good. The known record, you may recall, was £7100 - to a writer who had registered with ALCS for the first time and received payments relating to work they'd had published in the past three years. The previous best was just over £7000.

Gross distribution was up again so it remains a nice supplement for freelances in general. Of course you won't get any unless you join ALCS - which is free to NUJ members. Then you need to tell it about published works in which you have retained your copyright. See the links below.

Do let the Freelance know if you would like to crow - in strict anonymity - about a bigger payout.

Visual journalists see here

Journalists who produce visual work that stands alone as photo features or complements the written work of others should investigate the equivalent collecting society for visual artists - DACS. This makes an annual distribution each autumn, based on data reported by members.

17 May 2025: www.dacs.org.uk/payback is now open for your submissions.

Yes, we can...

8 May 2025: A member writes: "I received just over £6400 in March, mostly for 'CLAUK/2023 Reproduction of Journals'. I claim every year as you would expect so this doesn't appear to be a catch-up."

Join ALCS alcs.co.uk

Claim for articles alcs.co.uk

Join DACS Payback dacs.org.uk

Collecting societies pay for copying NUJ Freelance Fees Guide