Music Publishing
Performing Rights Organizations
The United States has three main Performing Rights Organizations, which can also be referred to as “PROs”. These PROs are ASCAP, BMI and SESAC. For the most part they all do the same thing; keeping track of the music that is being played out in public and determining what writers get what amount of royalties.
“Its very important to note that these PROs only license performance rights, and do not deal with dramatic performances like those seen on Broadway. They do not license mechanical rights, master rights, synchronization rights, or grand rights. They also do not cover Internet radio services like Pandora, satellite radio services like SIRIUS and XM, or digital cable music services like Music Choice or Muzak. That real is monitored by SoundExchange.”
The Performing Rights Organizations have their eyes on radio stations, television shows, restaurants, bars, hotels, theme parks and just about any other place you can imagine where there is music playing in a public manner.
In order for these places to play this music they must pay a blanket license fee to the Performing Rights Organization. This allows them to use whatever music they want without having to account to each individual songwriter. The fee is based on the size of the broadcast reach. For an example, a small clothing boutique’s blanket license fee would be much smaller than that of a large commercial radio station. So now the question is… How do these Performing Rights Organizations keep track of exactly what songs are being played? This is learned by finger printing technology, viewing radio stations playlists, television shows cue sheets and by taking polls from restaurants etc. They then pay royalties to writers based on the number of times an affiliated songwriter’s music is used.
As a songwriter, artist or producer, you affiliate with one and only one Performance Rights Organization. Publishers however can work with multiple societies at a time. Becoming
The United States has three main Performing Rights Organizations, which can also be referred to as “PROs”. These PROs are ASCAP, BMI and SESAC. For the most part they all do the same thing; keeping track of the music that is being played out in public and determining what writers get what amount of royalties.
“Its very important to note that these PROs only license performance rights, and do not deal with dramatic performances like those seen on Broadway. They do not license mechanical rights, master rights, synchronization rights, or grand rights. They also do not cover Internet radio services like Pandora, satellite radio services like SIRIUS and XM, or digital cable music services like Music Choice or Muzak. That real is monitored by SoundExchange.”
The Performing Rights Organizations have their eyes on radio stations, television shows, restaurants, bars, hotels, theme parks and just about any other place you can imagine where there is music playing in a public manner.
In order for these places to play this music they must pay a blanket license fee to the Performing Rights Organization. This allows them to use whatever music they want without having to account to each individual songwriter. The fee is based on the size of the broadcast reach. For an example, a small clothing boutique’s blanket license fee would be much smaller than that of a large commercial radio station. So now the question is… How do these Performing Rights Organizations keep track of exactly what songs are being played? This is learned by finger printing technology, viewing radio stations playlists, television shows cue sheets and by taking polls from restaurants etc. They then pay royalties to writers based on the number of times an affiliated songwriter’s music is used.
As a songwriter, artist or producer, you affiliate with one and only one Performance Rights Organization. Publishers however can work with multiple societies at a time. Becoming