September 2026 distribution: Top facts and figures
Last month, we paid 31,569 members their share of £12,402,911. We've put together some headline statistics that you might find interesting.
Have you ever wondered where the money comes from? The majority of our income comes from licences sold by the Copyright Licensing Agency. The biggest single source is from CLA Schools licences, followed by CLA Business licences. Beyond that, our biggest sources were for UK Educational Recording, and Italian broadcast and On Demand TV. You can learn more about where the money comes from here.
We paid members £306,205 from international private copying schemes in the most recent distribution. These are “levies”, mandated by governments, that are charged on the sale of recording and copying equipment, as a way of compensating creators for the reuse of their works.
Currently, there is no private copying scheme in the UK (although this is one of our core campaign focuses). However, these schemes exist in most European countries, and we collect money for UK authors through international agreements.
What are the most common amounts that members receive? In this distribution, most members (60.6%) received payments between £10 and £100. For other members:
- 31.7% of members received payments between £100 and £1,000.
- 6.7% of members received payments between £1,000 and £10,000
- 0.4% of members received payments over £10,000
Which countries received the most money? After the UK (£10,225,746), the highest paid countries were USA (£1,374,038), Australia (£173,231), Canada (£93,403) and France (£75,900).
Did you know that ALCS also pays out money for visual arts contributions to books, magazines and journals? This figure continues to grow year-on-year, and in the recent distribution reached £405,027 (£364,897 in September 2025).
