Ascap or BMI?

[energyflow]

I’m with the PRS in the UK.

When I register my songs they ask which US PRO I prefer, ASCAP or BMI.

I’ve heard they both pay out different rates for instrumental cues.

Can anyone clarify this and/or make a recommendation.

Many thanks.

[Danny Truitt]

E-flow,

I’m a complete newly to production music, having just signed up with MLR on a trial basis to check things out. However, I have “knocked around” the music industry for many years, concentrating on getting songs picked up by commercial artists. I’m a few miles down the road from Nashville, but I’ve spent quite a bit of time there and know a few writers there. The BMI vs. ASCAP question has been going around as long as I can remember. And now you can add SESAC. All three PROs have different methods of determining payout and those methods have changed several times over the years. And their payout methods for production music is different from terrestrial radio and live performances. And you may have seen some posts here and other places about the recent changes BMI has implemented for production music, although I have not investigated it yet.

I have known of a few instances where writers have cowritten a song with some belonging to ASCAP and some to BMI and their payouts were significantly different-sometimes getting more from ASCAP, sometimes more from BMI. In those cases, the writers brought the issue to the notice of their PRO and received compensation to match the writer(S) from the other PRO.

I would suggest that you try emailing each PRO and ask them about their methods for computing royalties. Maybe that would help (?). The Nashville-based writers that I know seem to think it’s pretty much a wash. They tend to pick a PRO more for a rep that they have a good rapport with more than anything.

Well, I’ve already told you more than I know, so I best sign off.

Danny

[woodsdenis]

In Ireland we do the same Ascap or BMI, it seemed up till recently BMI was better for production music BUT it seems BMI have changed the rules a bit and has resulted in a decrease.

[Mark_Petrie]

The whole survey thing that ASCAP seems to do a lot more of is a big sticking point for me. From what I’ve managed to find out, BMI is much more accurate with lower tier cable royalties. It’s not big bucks down at that level, but I had several recurring sports themes that ASCAP paid out on once, while my BMI co-writer received several checks. Also, BMI statements seem more detailed, easier to understand.

It depends on who you talk to. Someone who loves ASCAP might turn around the next quarter and tell you how much they hate them because of a rate / policy change. Or you might find someone who loathes all three enough to do something drastic, which brings me to…

There’s a fourth PRO in the US now – brand new and invite only, but some TV composers are getting in on it. It’s called GMR, Global Music Rights. I think it’s a bit scary being part of a tiny upstart PRO, but there are claims that their TV royalty rates will be significantly higher.

[compositor2]

There’s a fourth PRO in the US now

It’s not the same as the others. It’s Irving Azoff ‘colonizing the publishing space’. GMR is a publisher acting as a PRO. It’s for profit, which is pretty different from ASCAP or BMI.

[Art Munson]

From The Hollywood Reporter.

Azoff is the former chairman of Live Nation who is now spearheading a new venture, Global Music Rights (GMR), aimed at extracting higher performance rights royalties for songwriters. Traditionally, those rights have been handled by ASCAP and BMI, which have been hamstrung by consent decrees with the Justice Department that requires a license be given whenever an outlet requests it.

http://globalmusicrights.com/

[Mojo Rising]

I wanted to re-open this conversation on BMI vs ASCAP. I know there is a lot of different views on this but anyone out there happier with ASCAP? I see better feedback on BMI overall, but I feel making the switch from ASCAP to BMI would be too much of a headache with all the songs I have registered and re-registered with re-titles etc. I tried to recover royalties from ASCAP using tunesat and of course they don’t accept that. My other question is what is the best approach to recovering royalties that you see on your tunesat but not your PRO after it has been at least 9 months? Go to the library?

[Art Munson]

what is the best approach to recovering royalties that you see on your tunesat but not your PRO after it has been at least 9 months? Go to the library?

Yes, the library would be the first place to go. You need to first find out if you are on the cue sheet or it was even filed. The library would most likely have a better chance to find that out.

[Mojo Rising]

ok thanks Art. How long would you give it between what Itunes detected and what you are seeing on ASCAP before you take action? Is 9 months long enough, or do some get detected on ASCAP over a year out?

[Mojo Rising]

Sorry, Tunesat, not Itunes lol

[Art Munson]

I’ve been waiting 9 months. BTW I am BMI.

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