Ascap, Bmi, and Sesac: A Brief Overview

ASCAP, BMI, AND SESAC: A 

Introduction

As professional musicians, one of the most important aspects of the job is getting paid for our work. One of the ways to get money other than sales on albums and concerts are royalty payments. Royalties are collected based on money earned through publicity such as television, radio, and films. Performance rights organizations(PROs) help to collect royalties and distribute them to copyright holders as well as defend their rights in legal cases. By having a license from these PROs you can use there repertoire for performance and publicity purposes.

In the United States, there are three major PROs and they are the American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers(ASCAP), Broadcast Music, Inc.(BMI), and SESAC(Society of European Stage Authors and Composers). Each of these organizations are very unique from the other but they all basically do the same thing: collect and distribute royalties. Hopefully this paper will help people understand these groups, what they do, and the differences between these group because as a songwriter you can only be apart of one of these societies at a time unlike publishers which can be apart of all three. With that, let’s get started!

ASCAP: A Society of Songwriters Helping Other Songwriters

History

ASCAP is the only society out of the three that was created and controlled by composers, songwriters, lyricist, and music publishers. The organization started February 13, 1914 in a hotel in New York. Their basic purpose was to make sure that music creators fairly get paid for there public performances of there work and have their rights protected. Since then, ASCAP has been a leader in performance rights because their members are also the ones running the show, giving a sense of closeness throughout the organization.

Overview of Operations

Finance

ASCAP is a non-profit organization so all money aside from expenses that keep it running goes to songwriters and publishers.

Membership Relations

Since ASCAP is member-operated, there is a lot of emphasis on having an intimate relationships with their members. Members have plenty of benefits including health and music insurance, access to several travel and retail affiliates, and credit card to name a few. Another plus is that there is an annual membership meeting so its members have a say on what goes on in the organization.

Royalty Distributions and Payment

ASCAP distributes their royalties after they deduce operation fees. From there, they split the royalties and distribute one half to the music publishers and the other half to composers and authors. Then from there, the society determines the amount of money to distribute based on formulas that determine the values of each performance venue. Once that is settle the money is given to the music creators.

ASCAP pays its members in three month periods called performance quarters. Members have the option of two payments: the current performance plan, which pays 100% of royalties for all performances during each performance quarter, and the average performance plan which pays 100% royalties for a specific performance period.

Membership Requirements

In order to be a member of ASCAP you must be in the music publishing business or be composer or lyricist of musical works that has had at least one work published.

BMI: An “Open Door”

History

BMI was founded by record executives in 1939 as a non-profit PRO. What made BMI unique was its acceptance to offer representation to songwriters of newer genres that were not being represented at the time by ASCAP. Because they excepted writers of genres such as rock and roll, jazz, blues, and Latin music, BMI became a huge power at a very important time in music history. BMI became a leader, an “open door” to popular music.

Overview of Operations

Finance

Because BMI is a non -profit organization like ASCAP, most of the money goes directly to the songwriters and publishers because non-profit organizations do not operate to generate profit. They are guided by the laws set by the government as to how their money is used.

Membership