American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers
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The American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP) is a non-profit performance rights organization that protects its members' musical copyrights by monitoring public performances of their music, whether via a broadcast or live performance, and compensating them accordingly. ASCAP collects licensing fees from users of music created by ASCAP members, then distributes them back to its members as royalties (BMI has a similar method for its members). In effect, the arrangement is the product of a compromise: when a song is played, the user does not have to pay the copyright holder directly, nor does the music creator have to bill a radio station for use of a song.
In 2005, ASCAP collected US$750 million in licensing fees and distributed US$646 million in royalties to its members, with a 12.5% operating expense ratio. In the United States, ASCAP competes with two other performing rights organizations: Broadcast Music Incorporated (BMI) and the Society of European Stage Authors and Composers (SESAC).
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[edit] History
ASCAP was established in New York City on February 13, 1914 to protect the copyrighted musical compositions of its members, then mostly writers and publishers associated with New York’s Tin Pan Alley. ASCAP’s earliest members included the era’s most active songwriters – Irving Berlin, James Weldon Johnson, Jerome Kern and John Philip Sousa. Not long after, many other prominent songwriters became members. As of August 2007, ASCAP claims 300,000 songwriters, composers and music publishers as members.
In 1919, ASCAP and the Performing Right Society of Great Britain signed the first reciprocal agreement for the representation of each other’s members’ works in their respective territories. Today, ASCAP has reciprocal agreements all over the world and licenses the U.S. performances of hundreds of thousands of international music creators.
The advent of radio in the 1920s brought an important new source of income for ASCAP. Radio stations originally only broadcast performers live, the performers working for free. Later, performers wanted to be paid and recorded performances became more prevalent. Many composers didn't want their music performed or played for free, but some radio broadcasters grew reluctant to honor ASCAP license fees, and in 1940, during negotiations with ASCAP over rates, radio broadcasters formed Broadcast Music Incorporated (BMI) in an effort to drive down licensing fees.
During a ten month period lasting from January 1 to October 29, 1941, music licensed by ASCAP (1,250,000 songs) could not be broadcast on NBC and CBS radio stations. Eventually, public demand forced the two radio broadcasters to contract for the new rates. A smaller network, the Mutual Broadcasting System, settled in May 1941. [1] Today, over 11,500 local commercial radio stations and 2000 non-commercial radio broadcasters are ASCAP licensees.
ASCAP was the first U.S. performing rights organization to distribute royalties for performances on the Internet, and continues to pursue and secure licenses for websites, digital music providers and other new media.
ASCAP honors its top members in a series of annual awards shows in seven different music categories: Pop, Rhythm and Soul, Film and Television, Latin, Country, Christian, Rock, Metal, Rap, and Concert Music. In addition, ASCAP inducts jazz greats to its Jazz Wall of Fame in an annual ceremony held at the society’s New York offices.
Through its ASCAPlus Awards Program, ASCAP compensates those writers whose works are substantially performed in venues and media outside of its surveys. An independent panel reviews the applications and makes cash awards to deserving members as well as writers whose works have a unique prestige value. ASCAP is the only performing rights organization with a cash awards program of this kind. One common criticism is that the awards are actually quite low, normally ranging in the $25 - $100 range, and the reasoning behind the award is withheld from the writer.
In 2004 ASCAP partnered with Nimbit, Inc. to offer "ASCAP Web Tools" to ASCAP members. The tools included web hosting, design, and email marketing tools as well as widgets to implement on the artist's site.
In April of 2006, ASCAP inaugurated its annual ASCAP “I Create Music” EXPO, the first national conference fully dedicated to songwriting and composing. The first EXPO featured workshops, panels, mentor sessions and performances with notable figures from all music genres and sectors of the music industry. The second EXPO took place between April 19 and 21, 2007. Highlights included interview with well-known performer and industry insiders.
[edit] Criticism
ASCAP attracted media attention in 1996 when it threatened Girl Scouts of the USA and Boy Scouts of America camps that sang ASCAP's copyrighted works at camps with lawsuits for not paying licensing fees.[2] These threats were later retracted.[3]
ASCAP has also been criticized for its extremely non-transparent operations, including the refusal to release attendance records for board members, the notes from board meetings, and the reasoning behind their weighting formulas which determine how much money a song or composition gets paid for use on TV or radio.[4]
[edit] See also
[edit] References
- ^ "Gene Buck" bio, in Current Biography 1941, pp 114-116
- ^ http://www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/communications/ASCAP.html "Birds sing, but campers can’t - unless they pay up" Lisa Bannon
- ^ http://www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/communications/ASCAP.html "ASCAP Changes Its Tune; Never Intended to Collect Fees for Scouts' Campfire Songs, Group Says" Ken Ringle
- ^ http://www.filmmusicmag.com/articledetail/ASCAP-Since-AFJ2---A-Series-of-Unfortunate-Events-13.html "ASCAP Since AFJ2 - A Series of Unfortunate Events" by Mark Holden
[edit] Further reading
- This Business of Music by Sidney Shemel; M William Krasilovsky. New York : Billboard Publications, 1990. ISBN 0823077063
- "This Business of Songwriting By Jason Blume. Billboard Books, 2006 ISBN 0823077594
- All You Need to Know About the Music Business By Donald S. Passman. Simon and Schuster, 2003. ISBN 0743246373
