| American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers | |
|---|---|
| Abbreviation | ASCAP |
| Formation | February 13, 1914 |
| Type | Not-for-profit |
| Headquarters | New York City, New York, United States |
| Website | ascap.com |
The American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (commonly known as ASCAP) is an American not-for-profit performance-rights organization (PRO) 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 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 2008, ASCAP collected over US$933 million in licensing fees and distributed $817 million in royalties to its members, with an 11.3 percent operating expense ratio.[1] In the United States, ASCAP competes with two other PROs — Broadcast Music Incorporated (BMI) and the Society of European Stage Authors and Composers (SESAC).
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ASCAP was founded by composer Victor Herbert in New York City, New York, on February 13, 1914, to protect the copyrighted musical compositions of its members, who were mostly writers and publishers associated with New York City's Tin Pan Alley. ASCAP's earliest members included the era's most active songwriters — Irving Berlin, Otto Harbach, James Weldon Johnson, Jerome Kern and John Philip Sousa. Subsequently, many other prominent songwriters became members. As of July 2009, ASCAP membership included over 360,000 songwriters, composers and music publishers.[2]
In 1919, ASCAP and the Performing Rights Society of Great Britain (since 1997 known as PRS for Music), signed the first reciprocal agreement for the representation of each other's members' works in their respective territories. Today, ASCAP has global reciprocal agreements 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. ASCAP started collecting license fees from the broadcasters. Between 1931 and 1939, ASCAP increased roayalty rates charged to broadcasters more than 400%[3]
The jazz, blues, country, and swing music genres soundtracked the 1930s, and ASCAP members Louis Armstrong, Jelly Roll Morton, Fats Waller, Gene Autry and Jimmie Rodgers entertained the nation.[4]
In the late 1930s, ASCAP's general control over most music and its membership requirements were considered to be in restraint of trade and illegal under the Sherman Anti-Trust Act. The Justice Department sued ASCAP in 1937 but abandoned the case. The Justice Department sued again in 1941, and the case was settled with a consent decree in which the most important points were that ASCAP must fairly set rates and not discriminate between customers who have basically the same requirements to license music, or "similar standing." Also, anyone who is dissatisfied with the terms they can negotiate with ASCAP or otherwise are unable to get a license, may go to the court overseeing the consent decree, and litigate over the terms they find objectionable, and the terms set by the court will be binding upon the licensee and ASCAP. BMI also signed a consent decree in 1941, although the terms were much more favorable to BMI than those applied to ASCAP.[5]
In 1940, when ASCAP tried to double its license fees again, radio broadcasters formed a boycott of ASCAP and founded a competing royalty agency, Broadcast Music Incorporated (BMI). During a ten-month period lasting from January 1 to October 29, 1941, no music licensed by ASCAP (1,250,000 songs) was broadcast on NBC and CBS radio stations. Instead, the stations played regional music and styles (like rhythm and blues or country) that had been traditionally neglected by ASCAP. Eventually, the differences between ASCAP and the broadcasters were settled, and ASCAP agreed to fees much lower than in preceding years.
ASCAP's membership diversified further in the 1940s, bringing along jazz and swing greats including Duke Ellington, Count Basie, Benny Goodman and Fletcher Henderson. The movies also soared in popularity during the 1930s and 1940s, and with them came classic scores and songs by new ASCAP members like Harold Arlen, Johnny Mercer, Cole Porter, Morton Gould and Jule Styne. Classical-music composers Aaron Copland, Igor Stravinsky and Leonard Bernstein brought their compositions into the ASCAP repertory in the 1940s.[6]
In the 1950s and 1960s, television was introduced as a new revenue stream for ASCAP, one that maintains its importance today. With the birth of FM radio, new ASCAP members including John Denver, Jimi Hendrix, Quincy Jones, Janis Joplin and Carly Simon scored massive hits. Many Motown hits were written by ASCAP members Ashford & Simpson, Marvin Gaye, Smokey Robinson and Stevie Wonder. Both The Beatles and The Rolling Stones licensed their works through ASCAP, and the very first country Grammy Award went to ASCAP writer Bobby Russell for "Little Green Apples".[7] During this period, ASCAP also initiated a series of lawsuits to recover the position they lost during the boycott of 1941, without success.[8]
During the last three decades of the 20th century, ASCAP's membership grew to reflect every new development in music, including the funk, punk rock, heavy metal, hip-hop, techno and grunge music genres. Creators ranging from Lauryn Hill and Dr. Dre to the Ramones, Slayer and John Zorn joined. ASCAP launched a Latin membership department to serve ASCAP Latin writers — Marc Anthony, Joan Sebastian and Olga Tañon among them — with the Spanish-speaking world as their audience. In 1981, ASCAP prevailed against CBS in an eleven-year-old court case challenging the ASCAP blanket license.[9][10][11]
Today, ASCAP remains one of the world's most far-reaching PROs. ASCAP licenses over 11,500 local commercial radio stations and 2000 non-commercial radio broadcasters,[12] maintains reciprocal relationships with nearly 100 foreign PROs across six continents,[13] and licenses billions of public performances worldwide each year.[14] ASCAP was the first U.S. PRO 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 ASCAP's New York City offices, and honors PRS members that license their works through ASCAP at an annual awards gala in London, England.[15]
Through its annual 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. Award amounts begin at $100. ASCAP is the only PRO with a cash awards program of this kind.[16]
In April 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 most recent EXPO took place between April 24 and 26, 2010. Highlights included interviews, panels and performances with Bill Withers, Justin Timberlake, Quincy Jones, Dr. Luke, Linda Perry, John Mayer and Jason Mraz among other notable songwriters and industry insiders.[17]
ASCAP was the first American PRO to offer a package of exclusive benefits to its members. Currently these benefits include:[18]
ASCAP distributes to its members Playback, a magazine highlighting the progress and career accomplishments of ASCAP's writer and publisher members. Playback content is also available to the general public on ASCAP's website.[19]
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.[20] These threats were later retracted,[21] however they have drawn negative attention for cracking down on licensing fees on other occasions as well, such as when they demand that open mic events need to pay licensing (even if most or all of the songs are original).[22]
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 earns for use on television or radio.[23]
In 2009, an ASCAP rate court case regarding ringtones generated considerable public attention. Critics claimed that ASCAP may seek to hold consumers responsible for a ringtone public performance.[24] In statements to the press, ASCAP noted the following:
On October 14, 2009, a federal court ruled that "when a ringtone plays on a cellular telephone, even when that occurs in public, the user is exempt from copyright liability, and [the cellular carrier] is not liable either secondarily or directly." The ruling made clear that playing music in public, when done without any commercial purpose, does not infringe copyright. (US v. ASCAP, US District Court, Southern District of New York).[26]
Further controversies arose involving ASCAP in 2009 and 2010. The organization requested that some websites pay licensing fees on embedded YouTube videos, even though YouTube already pays licensing fees,[27] and demanded payment from Amazon.com and iTunes for 30-second streaming previews of music tracks,[28] which traditionally does not require a license, being considered a promotional vehicle for song sales. It also sued a Manhattan bar over the unlicensed use of music, naming Bruce Springsteen as a plaintiff without Springsteen being informed or consenting.[29]
In June 2010, ASCAP sent letters to its members soliciting donations to fight entities that support weaker copyright restrictions such as Public Knowledge, the Electronic Frontier Foundation and Creative Commons,[30][31] creating notable controversy as many[32] argued that these licences are a form of copyright and offer the artist nothing but an extra choice. Lawrence Lessig, a co-founder of Creative Commons, responded stating that they are not aiming to undermine copyright, and invited ASCAP for a public debate.[33] The offer was turned down by ASCAP's Paul Williams.[34]