ASCAP payouts April 2020

[Vlad]

Hey Folks,

Just touching base about the ASCAP April 2020 writer’s payment. Mine was 2/3 what it normally is for the April payout over the last couple years. As such, it is my lowest writer’s payout in quite a while.

Just looking to see if I had a bad quarter, or if there was an overall trend.

Without specific numbers; maybe you can share your experience.

Thanks – Vlad

[Dannyc]

mine was lowest since i started getting my first statements beginning of 2018. scary times. especially for those who rely on music for their full income.

[euca]

Same here, lowest payout since 2014. I noticed that there are no premium credits at all on this statement and that was a main factor in the lower payout.
Same show/cue/time of day paid out 1.5 times lower in this statement compared to last statement!

[LuvMusic]

I’m more worried about the international distribution that is due in May. Let’s hope there is one! ASCAP still hasn’t given us a set date for May, I’m assuming it’ll be towards the tail end of next month.
As for the current domestic statement, mine was a bit lower than usual.

[gigdude]

Mine was pretty good, but only cause of one show with 6 episodes in the internet category ( Comedians in Cars), that paid $1,207, way more than everything else. Why I don’t know. Makes no since but I’ll take it. Most of the shows, paid below a dollar. I see a real trend downward especially for reruns. Generally speaking, more shows less money.

[LuvMusic]

Hey gigdude! Congrats on the CIC placements! You probably had a ton of plays on Netflix. That’s where the show airs correct? Netflix doesn’t show the amount of plays. Hulu does. Amazon does. Truth is, you probably should have been paid WAY more than what you got. Streaming royalties are a joke!

[GeorgeMichael]

Lowest domestic quarterly payout in years here.

[UpFromTheSkies]

” Comedians In Cars” payout was a bright spot on my statement as well. Sports placements paid next to nothing for me this quarter. Shockingly low, in fact.

[Music1234]

Yep, Down about 30 to 40% from what I’d typically earn from a domestic quarterly distribution. This PRO is a corrupt organization. I can just sense it by various communications I’ve had with them regarding very high profile projects that aired tens of thousands of times. As suspected, they are most likely democratizing the distribution of TV and advertising earnings. Us TV and advertising writers clearly had monies “borrowed from us” to send to indie and pop artists who normally get royalties from live performances of their songs at concert venues, clubs, bars, restaurants, sports stadiums, theme parks and so on. That’s the only thing I can think of. Either that, or their finance people had hundreds of millions invested in the stock market and were caught off guard when the market tanked in March.

ASCAP, if you need more revenue look no further than right here:

https://www.cnbc.com/2020/04/28/alphabet-googl-earnings-q1-2020.html

The money this “TV Network” is making from advertising revenue blows away tv and cable networks, yet our statements indicate pennies paid to us from YOUTUBE. Google had $33 BILLION in advertising revenue in Q1, 2020 alone! Why are we not getting streaming royalties at a much higher rate from this source?

[Alan]

I was down about 10% but I had a few good placements (low 3 figures) that padded my statement.

[Dannyc]

i presume you mean low 3 figures per placement not over all?

[gen5020]

Im not sure we can blame the ASCAP if we were down this quarter. From their email: The good news is that this distribution is funded in the same amount anticipated before the coronavirus outbreak. In fact, our March/April distributions are up from last year, and among our highest ever.

[Mark Browne]

If ASCAP April Domestic Writer’s Distribution is collected from months before the Pandemic affected businesses, why is this distribution 30-40% less? I received emails from ASCAP telling us that their Domestic Writer’s Distribution was “Fully Funded”.
Really a tough time for us media composers. I’m becoming more stressed at the realization that the ASCAP International Distribution will not be paid in May. Do BMI writer experience the same?

[LuvMusic]

I just called ASCAP. The rep said that they are releasing an International Distribution later this month, towards the end of May. She said that they should be able to give us a firm date by the end of this week. As soon as they have a date, I’m sure we’ll all get an email from ASCAP Global Services.

[RM90]

Just got my international ASCAP payment today, and it was only about half of what I expected. I have one international ad that pays a similar amount every quarter. The Covid impact on royalties has begun! I’m really considering switching to BMI if they expect me to be fine earning half of what I deserve.

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