American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers
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The American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers (ASCAP) is a not-for-profit performing 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. In 2005, ASCAP collected US$750 million in licensing fees and distributed US$646 million in royalties to its members, yielding a 12.5% operating expense ratio, the lowest of any performance rights organization in the world. 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).
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, prominent songwriters such as W.C. Handy, Richard Rodgers, Oscar Hammerstein II and George and Ira Gershwin became members. As of early 2007, ASCAP claims 275,000 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. Eventually, public demand forced the radio broadcasters to agree to new rates. 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 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.
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 hundreds of notable figures from all music genres and sectors of the music industry, including an interview and Q&A session with Tom Petty. The second EXPO is scheduled for April 19 through 21, 2007.
