American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers
Encyclopedia
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 copyright
s 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. In the United States, ASCAP competes with two other PROs — Broadcast Music Incorporated
(BMI) and the Society of European Stage Authors and Composers
(SESAC).
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.
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%
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.
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.
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.
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
". During this period, ASCAP also initiated a series of lawsuits to recover the position they lost during the boycott of 1941, without success.
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.
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, maintains reciprocal relationships with nearly 100 foreign PROs across six continents, and licenses billions of public performances worldwide each year. 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.
, 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
.
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.
, Justin Timberlake
, Quincy Jones
, Dr. Luke
, Linda Perry
, John Mayer
and Jason Mraz
among other notable songwriters and industry insiders.
and Boy Scouts of America
camps that sang ASCAP's copyrighted works at camps with lawsuits for not paying licensing fees. These threats were later retracted, 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).
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.
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. 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).
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, and demanded payment from Amazon.com
and iTunes
for 30-second streaming previews of music tracks, 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.
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
, creating notable controversy as many 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. The offer was turned down by ASCAP's Paul Williams
.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
not-for-profit performance-rights organization
Performance rights organisation
Performance rights organizations provide intermediary functions, particularly royalty collection, between copyright holders and parties who wish to use copyrighted works publicly such as shopping and dining venues. Legal consumer purchase of works, such as buying CDs from a music store, confer...
(PRO) that protects its members' musical copyright
Copyright
Copyright is a legal concept, enacted by most governments, giving the creator of an original work exclusive rights to it, usually for a limited time...
s by monitoring public performances of their music
Music
Music is an art form whose medium is sound and silence. Its common elements are pitch , rhythm , dynamics, and the sonic qualities of timbre and texture...
, whether via a broadcast
Broadcasting
Broadcasting is the distribution of audio and video content to a dispersed audience via any audio visual medium. Receiving parties may include the general public or a relatively large subset of thereof...
or live performance
Concert
A concert is a live performance before an audience. The performance may be by a single musician, sometimes then called a recital, or by a musical ensemble, such as an orchestra, a choir, or a musical band...
, 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
Royalties
Royalties are usage-based payments made by one party to another for the right to ongoing use of an asset, sometimes an intellectual property...
. 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$
United States dollar
The United States dollar , also referred to as the American dollar, is the official currency of the United States of America. It is divided into 100 smaller units called cents or pennies....
933 million in licensing fees and distributed $817 million in royalties to its members, with an 11.3 percent operating expense
Operating expense
An operating expense, operating expenditure, operational expense, operational expenditure or OPEX is an ongoing cost for running a product, business, or system . Its counterpart, a capital expenditure , is the cost of developing or providing non-consumable parts for the product or system...
ratio. In the United States, ASCAP competes with two other PROs — Broadcast Music Incorporated
Broadcast Music Incorporated
Broadcast Music, Inc. is one of three United States performing rights organizations, along with ASCAP and SESAC. It collects license fees on behalf of songwriters, composers, and music publishers and distributes them as royalties to those members whose works have been performed...
(BMI) and the Society of European Stage Authors and Composers
SESAC
SESAC, originally the Society of European Stage Authors & Composers, is the smallest of the three performance rights organizations in the United States. SESAC was founded in 1930, making it the second-oldest performing rights organization in the U.S. SESAC is also the fastest-growing PRO in the...
(SESAC).
History
ASCAP was founded by composer Victor HerbertVictor Herbert
Victor August Herbert was an Irish-born, German-raised American composer, cellist and conductor. Although Herbert enjoyed important careers as a cello soloist and conductor, he is best known for composing many successful operettas that premiered on Broadway from the 1890s to World War I...
in New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
, New York
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
, on February 13, 1914, to protect the copyrighted musical compositions of its members, who were mostly writers and publishers
History of music publishing
- Early publishing:Music publishing did not begin on a large scale until the mid-15th century, with the first printing of music. The earliest existence of printed music dates from about 1465, and then only liturgical chants were printed...
associated with New York City’s Tin Pan Alley
Tin Pan Alley
Tin Pan Alley is the name given to the collection of New York City music publishers and songwriters who dominated the popular music of the United States in the late 19th century and early 20th century...
. ASCAP’s earliest members included the era’s most active songwriters — Irving Berlin
Irving Berlin
Irving Berlin was an American composer and lyricist of Jewish heritage, widely considered one of the greatest songwriters in American history.His first hit song, "Alexander's Ragtime Band", became world famous...
, Otto Harbach
Otto Harbach
Otto Abels Harbach, born Otto Abels Hauerbach was an American lyricist and librettist of about 50 musical comedies...
, James Weldon Johnson
James Weldon Johnson
James Weldon Johnson was an American author, politician, diplomat, critic, journalist, poet, anthologist, educator, lawyer, songwriter, and early civil rights activist. Johnson is remembered best for his leadership within the NAACP, as well as for his writing, which includes novels, poems, and...
, Jerome Kern
Jerome Kern
Jerome David Kern was an American composer of musical theatre and popular music. One of the most important American theatre composers of the early 20th century, he wrote more than 700 songs, used in over 100 stage works, including such classics as "Ol' Man River", "Can't Help Lovin' Dat Man", "A...
and John Philip Sousa
John Philip Sousa
John Philip Sousa was an American composer and conductor of the late Romantic era, known particularly for American military and patriotic marches. Because of his mastery of march composition, he is known as "The March King" or the "American March King" due to his British counterpart Kenneth J....
. Subsequently, many other prominent songwriters became members. As of July 2009, ASCAP membership included over 360,000 songwriters, composers and music publishers.
In 1919, ASCAP and the Performing Rights Society of Great Britain
Great Britain
Great Britain or Britain is an island situated to the northwest of Continental Europe. It is the ninth largest island in the world, and the largest European island, as well as the largest of the British Isles...
(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 jazz
Jazz
Jazz is a musical style that originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States. It was born out of a mix of African and European music traditions. From its early development until the present, jazz has incorporated music from 19th and 20th...
, blues
Blues
Blues is the name given to both a musical form and a music genre that originated in African-American communities of primarily the "Deep South" of the United States at the end of the 19th century from spirituals, work songs, field hollers, shouts and chants, and rhymed simple narrative ballads...
, country
Country music
Country music is a popular American musical style that began in the rural Southern United States in the 1920s. It takes its roots from Western cowboy and folk music...
, and swing music genres soundtracked the 1930s, and ASCAP members Louis Armstrong
Louis Armstrong
Louis Armstrong , nicknamed Satchmo or Pops, was an American jazz trumpeter and singer from New Orleans, Louisiana....
, Jelly Roll Morton
Jelly Roll Morton
Ferdinand Joseph LaMothe , known professionally as Jelly Roll Morton, was an American ragtime and early jazz pianist, bandleader and composer....
, Fats Waller
Fats Waller
Fats Waller , born Thomas Wright Waller, was a jazz pianist, organist, composer, singer, and comedic entertainer...
, Gene Autry
Gene Autry
Orvon Grover Autry , better known as Gene Autry, was an American performer who gained fame as The Singing Cowboy on the radio, in movies and on television for more than three decades beginning in the 1930s...
and Jimmie Rodgers
Jimmie Rodgers (country singer)
James Charles Rodgers , known as Jimmie Rodgers, was an American country singer in the early 20th century known most widely for his rhythmic yodeling...
entertained the nation.
Antitrust lawsuits
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 decreeConsent decree
A consent decree is a final, binding judicial decree or judgment memorializing a voluntary agreement between parties to a suit in return for withdrawal of a criminal charge or an end to a civil litigation...
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.
ASCAP boycott
In 1940, when ASCAP tried to double its license fees again, radio broadcasters formed a boycottBoycott
A boycott is an act of voluntarily abstaining from using, buying, or dealing with a person, organization, or country as an expression of protest, usually for political reasons...
of ASCAP and founded a competing royalty agency, Broadcast Music Incorporated
Broadcast Music Incorporated
Broadcast Music, Inc. is one of three United States performing rights organizations, along with ASCAP and SESAC. It collects license fees on behalf of songwriters, composers, and music publishers and distributes them as royalties to those members whose works have been performed...
(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
NBC
The National Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network and former radio network headquartered in the GE Building in New York City's Rockefeller Center with additional major offices near Los Angeles and in Chicago...
and CBS
CBS
CBS Broadcasting Inc. is a major US commercial broadcasting television network, which started as a radio network. The name is derived from the initials of the network's former name, Columbia Broadcasting System. The network is sometimes referred to as the "Eye Network" in reference to the shape of...
radio stations. Instead, the stations played regional music and styles (like rhythm and blues
Rhythm and blues
Rhythm and blues, often abbreviated to R&B, is a genre of popular African American music that originated in the 1940s. The term was originally used by record companies to describe recordings marketed predominantly to urban African Americans, at a time when "urbane, rocking, jazz based music with a...
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
Duke Ellington
Edward Kennedy "Duke" Ellington was an American composer, pianist, and big band leader. Ellington wrote over 1,000 compositions...
, Count Basie
Count Basie
William "Count" Basie was an American jazz pianist, organist, bandleader, and composer. Basie led his jazz orchestra almost continuously for nearly 50 years...
, Benny Goodman
Benny Goodman
Benjamin David “Benny” Goodman was an American jazz and swing musician, clarinetist and bandleader; widely known as the "King of Swing".In the mid-1930s, Benny Goodman led one of the most popular musical groups in America...
and Fletcher Henderson
Fletcher Henderson
James Fletcher Hamilton Henderson, Jr. was an American pianist, bandleader, arranger and composer, important in the development of big band jazz and swing music. His was one of the most prolific black orchestras and his influence was vast...
. 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
Harold Arlen
Harold Arlen was an American composer of popular music, having written over 500 songs, a number of which have become known the world over. In addition to composing the songs for The Wizard of Oz, including the classic 1938 song, "Over the Rainbow,” Arlen is a highly regarded contributor to the...
, Johnny Mercer
Johnny Mercer
John Herndon "Johnny" Mercer was an American lyricist, songwriter and singer. He is best known as a lyricist, but he also composed music. He was also a popular singer who recorded his own songs as well as those written by others...
, Cole Porter
Cole Porter
Cole Albert Porter was an American composer and songwriter. Born to a wealthy family in Indiana, he defied the wishes of his domineering grandfather and took up music as a profession. Classically trained, he was drawn towards musical theatre...
, Morton Gould
Morton Gould
Morton Gould was an American composer, conductor, arranger, and pianist.Born in Richmond Hill, New York, Gould was recognized early as a child prodigy with abilities in improvisation and composition. His first composition was published at age six...
and Jule Styne
Jule Styne
Jule Styne was a British-born American songwriter especially famous for a series of Broadway musicals, which included several very well known and frequently revived shows.-Early life:...
. Classical-music
Classical music
Classical music is the art music produced in, or rooted in, the traditions of Western liturgical and secular music, encompassing a broad period from roughly the 11th century to present times...
composers Aaron Copland
Aaron Copland
Aaron Copland was an American composer, composition teacher, writer, and later in his career a conductor of his own and other American music. He was instrumental in forging a distinctly American style of composition, and is often referred to as "the Dean of American Composers"...
, Igor Stravinsky
Igor Stravinsky
Igor Fyodorovich Stravinsky ; 6 April 1971) was a Russian, later naturalized French, and then naturalized American composer, pianist, and conductor....
and Leonard Bernstein
Leonard Bernstein
Leonard Bernstein August 25, 1918 – October 14, 1990) was an American conductor, composer, author, music lecturer and pianist. He was among the first conductors born and educated in the United States of America to receive worldwide acclaim...
brought their compositions into the ASCAP repertory in the 1940s.
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
FM broadcasting
FM broadcasting is a broadcasting technology pioneered by Edwin Howard Armstrong which uses frequency modulation to provide high-fidelity sound over broadcast radio. The term "FM band" describes the "frequency band in which FM is used for broadcasting"...
, new ASCAP members including John Denver
John Denver
Henry John Deutschendorf, Jr. , known professionally as John Denver, was an American singer/songwriter, activist, and humanitarian. After growing up in numerous locations with his military family, Denver began his music career in folk music groups in the late 1960s. His greatest commercial success...
, Jimi Hendrix
Jimi Hendrix
James Marshall "Jimi" Hendrix was an American guitarist and singer-songwriter...
, Quincy Jones
Quincy Jones
Quincy Delightt Jones, Jr. is an American record producer and musician. A conductor, musical arranger, film composer, television producer, and trumpeter. His career spans five decades in the entertainment industry and a record 79 Grammy Award nominations, 27 Grammys, including a Grammy Legend...
, Janis Joplin
Janis Joplin
Janis Lyn Joplin was an American singer, songwriter, painter, dancer and music arranger. She rose to prominence in the late 1960s as the lead singer of Big Brother and the Holding Company and later as a solo artist with her backing groups, The Kozmic Blues Band and The Full Tilt Boogie Band...
and Carly Simon
Carly Simon
Carly Elisabeth Simon is an American singer-songwriter, musician, and children's author. She rose to fame in the 1970s with a string of hit records, and has since been the recipient of two Grammy Awards, an Academy Award, and a Golden Globe Award for her work...
scored massive hits. Many Motown hits were written by ASCAP members Ashford & Simpson
Ashford & Simpson
Nickolas Ashford , and Valerie Simpson , were a husband and wife songwriting/production team and recording artists....
, Marvin Gaye
Marvin Gaye
Marvin Pentz Gay, Jr. , better known by his stage name Marvin Gaye, was an American singer-songwriter and musician with a three-octave vocal range....
, Smokey Robinson
Smokey Robinson
William "Smokey" Robinson, Jr. is an American R&B singer-songwriter, record producer, and former record executive. Robinson is one of the primary figures associated with Motown, second only to the company's founder, Berry Gordy...
and Stevie Wonder
Stevie Wonder
Stevland Hardaway Morris , better known by his stage name Stevie Wonder, is an American singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, record producer and activist...
. Both The Beatles
The Beatles
The Beatles were an English rock band, active throughout the 1960s and one of the most commercially successful and critically acclaimed acts in the history of popular music. Formed in Liverpool, by 1962 the group consisted of John Lennon , Paul McCartney , George Harrison and Ringo Starr...
and The Rolling Stones
The Rolling Stones
The Rolling Stones are an English rock band, formed in London in April 1962 by Brian Jones , Ian Stewart , Mick Jagger , and Keith Richards . Bassist Bill Wyman and drummer Charlie Watts completed the early line-up...
licensed their works through ASCAP, and the very first country Grammy Award
Grammy Award
A Grammy Award — or Grammy — is an accolade by the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences of the United States to recognize outstanding achievement in the music industry...
went to ASCAP writer Bobby Russell
Bobby Russell
Bobby Russell was an American singer and songwriter. Between 1966 and 1973, he charted five singles on the Hot Country Songs charts, including the crossover pop hit "Saturday Morning Confusion." Russell was also married to singer and actress Vicki Lawrence from 1972 to 1974.-Career:Russell wrote...
for "Little Green Apples
Little Green Apples
"Little Green Apples" is a song written by Bobby Russell which was most successful as a 1968 hit single by O. C. Smith.According to Buzz Cason, who partnered Bobby Russell in the Nashville-based Rising Sons music publishing firm, Russell wrote both the songs "Honey" and "Little Green Apples" as "an...
". During this period, ASCAP also initiated a series of lawsuits to recover the position they lost during the boycott of 1941, without success.
During the last three decades of the 20th century, ASCAP’s membership grew to reflect every new development in music , including the funk
Funk
Funk is a music genre that originated in the mid-late 1960s when African American musicians blended soul music, jazz and R&B into a rhythmic, danceable new form of music. Funk de-emphasizes melody and harmony and brings a strong rhythmic groove of electric bass and drums to the foreground...
, punk rock
Punk rock
Punk rock is a rock music genre that developed between 1974 and 1976 in the United States, the United Kingdom, and Australia. Rooted in garage rock and other forms of what is now known as protopunk music, punk rock bands eschewed perceived excesses of mainstream 1970s rock...
, heavy metal
Heavy metal music
Heavy metal is a genre of rock music that developed in the late 1960s and early 1970s, largely in the Midlands of the United Kingdom and the United States...
, hip-hop
Hip hop music
Hip hop music, also called hip-hop, rap music or hip-hop music, is a musical genre consisting of a stylized rhythmic music that commonly accompanies rapping, a rhythmic and rhyming speech that is chanted...
, techno
Techno
Techno is a form of electronic dance music that emerged in Detroit, Michigan in the United States during the mid to late 1980s. The first recorded use of the word techno, in reference to a genre of music, was in 1988...
and grunge
Grunge
Grunge is a subgenre of alternative rock that emerged during the mid-1980s in the American state of Washington, particularly in the Seattle area. Inspired by hardcore punk, heavy metal, and indie rock, grunge is generally characterized by heavily distorted electric guitars, contrasting song...
music genres. Creators ranging from Lauryn Hill
Lauryn Hill
Lauryn Noelle Hill is an American singer-songwriter, record producer, and actress.Early in her career, she established her reputation as a member of the Fugees. In 1998, she launched her solo career with the release of the commercially successful and critically acclaimed album, The Miseducation of...
and Dr. Dre
Dr. Dre
Andre Romelle Young , primarily known by his stage name Dr. Dre, is an American record producer, rapper, record executive, entrepreneur, and occasional actor. He is the founder and current CEO of Aftermath Entertainment and a former co-owner and artist of Death Row Records...
to the Ramones
Ramones
The Ramones were an American rock band that formed in the New York City neighborhood of Forest Hills, Queens, in 1974. They are often cited as the first punk rock group...
, Slayer
Slayer
Slayer is an American thrash metal band formed in Huntington Park, California, in 1981 by guitarists Jeff Hanneman and Kerry King. Slayer rose to fame with their 1986 release, Reign in Blood, and is credited as one of the "Big Four" thrash metal acts, along with Metallica, Megadeth and...
and John Zorn
John Zorn
John Zorn is an American avant-garde composer, arranger, record producer, saxophonist and multi-instrumentalist. Zorn is a prolific artist: he has hundreds of album credits as performer, composer, or producer...
joined. ASCAP launched a Latin membership department to serve ASCAP Latin writers — Marc Anthony
Marc Anthony
Marc Anthony is an American singer-songwriter, actor and producer. Anthony is the top selling tropical salsa artist of all time. The two-time Grammy and three-time Latin Grammy–winner has sold more than 30 million albums worldwide. He is best known for his Latin salsa numbers and ballads...
, Joan Sebastian
Joan Sebastian
Joan Sebastian is a popular Mexican singer and songwriter. He has composed hundreds of songs and been a regular staple on the top-40 charts in Mexico since his career began in 1977. His music is a mixture of Latin pop, ranchera and grupera music...
and Olga Tañon
Olga Tañón
Olga Tañón is a two-time Grammy Award and three-time Latin Grammy-winning Merengue and Latin Pop artist. Tañón has earned 5 Latin Grammy Awards and 19 Premios Lo Nuestro awards during her career.-Early years:...
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.
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, maintains reciprocal relationships with nearly 100 foreign PROs across six continents, and licenses billions of public performances worldwide each year. 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.
Annual Awards
ASCAP honors its top members in a series of annual awards shows in seven different music categories: popPop music
Pop music is usually understood to be commercially recorded music, often oriented toward a youth market, usually consisting of relatively short, simple songs utilizing technological innovations to produce new variations on existing themes.- Definitions :David Hatch and Stephen Millward define pop...
, rhythm
Rhythm and blues
Rhythm and blues, often abbreviated to R&B, is a genre of popular African American music that originated in the 1940s. The term was originally used by record companies to describe recordings marketed predominantly to urban African Americans, at a time when "urbane, rocking, jazz based music with a...
and soul
Soul music
Soul music is a music genre originating in the United States combining elements of gospel music and rhythm and blues. According to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, soul is "music that arose out of the black experience in America through the transmutation of gospel and rhythm & blues into a form of...
, film
Film
A film, also called a movie or motion picture, is a series of still or moving images. It is produced by recording photographic images with cameras, or by creating images using animation techniques or visual effects...
and television
Television
Television is a telecommunication medium for transmitting and receiving moving images that can be monochrome or colored, with accompanying sound...
, Latin
Latin American music
Latin American music, found within Central and South America, is a series of musical styles and genres that mixes influences from Spanish, African and indigenous sources, that has recently become very famous in the US.-Argentina:...
, country
Country music
Country music is a popular American musical style that began in the rural Southern United States in the 1920s. It takes its roots from Western cowboy and folk music...
, Christian
Contemporary Christian music
Contemporary Christian music is a genre of modern popular music which is lyrically focused on matters concerned with the Christian faith...
and concert music
Classical music
Classical music is the art music produced in, or rooted in, the traditions of Western liturgical and secular music, encompassing a broad period from roughly the 11th century to present times...
. 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
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
, England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
.
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.
"I Create Music" EXPO
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 WithersBill Withers
William Harrison "Bill" Withers, Jr. is an American singer-songwriter and musician who performed and recorded from 1970 until 1985. Some of his best-known songs are "Lean on Me", "Ain't No Sunshine", "Use Me", "Just the Two of Us", "Lovely Day", and "Grandma's Hands"...
, Justin Timberlake
Justin Timberlake
Justin Randall Timberlake is an American pop musician and actor. He achieved early fame when he appeared as a contestant on Star Search, and went on to star in the Disney Channel television series The New Mickey Mouse Club, where he met future bandmate JC Chasez...
, Quincy Jones
Quincy Jones
Quincy Delightt Jones, Jr. is an American record producer and musician. A conductor, musical arranger, film composer, television producer, and trumpeter. His career spans five decades in the entertainment industry and a record 79 Grammy Award nominations, 27 Grammys, including a Grammy Legend...
, Dr. Luke
Dr. Luke
Lukasz Gottwald , better known as Dr. Luke, is an American songwriter, record producer, and remixer. Luke performed with the Saturday Night Live Band for ten seasons until 2007. He has co-written and co-produced a string of commercially successful songs...
, Linda Perry
Linda Perry
Linda Perry is an American rock musician, songwriter, and record producer. Once best known as the lead singer and primary songwriter of 4 Non Blondes, Perry has founded two record labels and has become a major songwriter and producer...
, John Mayer
John Mayer
John Clayton Mayer is an American pop rock and blues rock musician, singer-songwriter, recording artist, and music producer. Born in Bridgeport, Connecticut and raised in Fairfield, Connecticut, he attended Berklee College of Music in Boston. He moved to Atlanta in 1997, where he refined his...
and Jason Mraz
Jason Mraz
Jason Thomas Mraz , also known as Mr. AZ and Mr. Raz, is an American singer-songwriter. Mraz released his debut album, Waiting for My Rocket to Come, which contained the hit single "The Remedy ", in 2002, but it was not until the release of his second album, "Mr. A-Z", in 2005, that Mraz achieved...
among other notable songwriters and industry insiders.
Member benefits
ASCAP was the first American PRO to offer a package of exclusive benefits to its members. Currently these benefits include:- Discount on membership to the Songwriters Hall of FameSongwriters Hall of FameThe Songwriters Hall of Fame is an arm of the National Academy of Popular Music. It was founded in 1969 by songwriter Johnny Mercer and music publishers Abe Olman and Howie Richmond. The goal is to create a museum but as of April, 2008, the means do not yet exist and so instead it is an online...
- Membership in the U.S. Alliance Federal Credit Union
- Discounts on healthHealth insuranceHealth insurance is insurance against the risk of incurring medical expenses among individuals. By estimating the overall risk of health care expenses among a targeted group, an insurer can develop a routine finance structure, such as a monthly premium or payroll tax, to ensure that money is...
, dentalDental insuranceDental insurance is a type of health insurance designed to pay a portion of the costs associated with dental care. There are several different types of individual, family, or group dental insurance plans grouped into three primary categories: Indemnity which allows you to see any dentist you want...
, instrument and life insuranceLife insuranceLife insurance is a contract between an insurance policy holder and an insurer, where the insurer promises to pay a designated beneficiary a sum of money upon the death of the insured person. Depending on the contract, other events such as terminal illness or critical illness may also trigger...
via its MusicPro program - Discount on ASCAP Web Tools, a set of internet-based marketing and sales tools developed by Nimbit, Inc. for ASCAP members
- Discounts on music-related retail products and services
- Hotel and rental car discounts
Playback magazine
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.Criticism
ASCAP attracted media attention in 1996 when it threatened Girl Scouts of the USAGirl Scouts of the USA
The Girl Scouts of the United States of America is a youth organization for girls in the United States and American girls living abroad. It describes itself as "the world's preeminent organization dedicated solely to girls". It was founded by Juliette Gordon Low in 1912 and was organized after Low...
and Boy Scouts of America
Boy Scouts of America
The Boy Scouts of America is one of the largest youth organizations in the United States, with over 4.5 million youth members in its age-related divisions...
camps that sang ASCAP's copyrighted works at camps with lawsuits for not paying licensing fees. These threats were later retracted, 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).
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.
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. In statements to the press, ASCAP noted the following:
- It is seeking to ensure that wireless carriers pay ASCAP members a share of the substantial revenue that mobile operators derive from content (like ringtones) that uses ASCAP members’ music. This content includes the delivery of full track songs, music videos, television content, ringtones and ringback tones.
- It has been licensing wireless carriers and ringtone content providers since 2001, and that it is not in any way seeking to charge consumers.
- It is striving to license those that make a business of transmitting its members’ music. This holds true for any medium where businesses have been built by using this music as content or a service – whether terrestrial broadcast, satellite, cable, Internet or wireless carriers providing audio and video content.
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).
Further controversies arose involving ASCAP in 2009 and 2010. The organization requested that some websites pay licensing fees on embedded YouTube
YouTube
YouTube is a video-sharing website, created by three former PayPal employees in February 2005, on which users can upload, view and share videos....
videos, even though YouTube already pays licensing fees, and demanded payment from Amazon.com
Amazon.com
Amazon.com, Inc. is a multinational electronic commerce company headquartered in Seattle, Washington, United States. It is the world's largest online retailer. Amazon has separate websites for the following countries: United States, Canada, United Kingdom, Germany, France, Italy, Spain, Japan, and...
and iTunes
ITunes
iTunes is a media player computer program, used for playing, downloading, and organizing digital music and video files on desktop computers. It can also manage contents on iPod, iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad....
for 30-second streaming previews of music tracks, 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
Bruce Springsteen
Bruce Frederick Joseph Springsteen , nicknamed "The Boss," is an American singer-songwriter who records and tours with the E Street Band...
as a plaintiff
Plaintiff
A plaintiff , also known as a claimant or complainant, is the term used in some jurisdictions for the party who initiates a lawsuit before a court...
without Springsteen being informed or consenting.
In June 2010, ASCAP sent letters to its members soliciting donations to fight entities that support weaker copyright
Copyright
Copyright is a legal concept, enacted by most governments, giving the creator of an original work exclusive rights to it, usually for a limited time...
restrictions such as Public Knowledge
Public Knowledge
Public Knowledge is a non-profit Washington, D.C.-based public interest group that is involved in intellectual property law, competition, and choice in the digital marketplace, and an open standards/end-to-end internet....
, the Electronic Frontier Foundation
Electronic Frontier Foundation
The Electronic Frontier Foundation is an international non-profit digital rights advocacy and legal organization based in the United States...
and Creative Commons
Creative Commons
Creative Commons is a non-profit organization headquartered in Mountain View, California, United States devoted to expanding the range of creative works available for others to build upon legally and to share. The organization has released several copyright-licenses known as Creative Commons...
, creating notable controversy as many argued that these licences are a form of copyright and offer the artist nothing but an extra choice. Lawrence Lessig
Lawrence Lessig
Lawrence "Larry" Lessig is an American academic and political activist. He is best known as a proponent of reduced legal restrictions on copyright, trademark, and radio frequency spectrum, particularly in technology applications, and he has called for state-based activism to promote substantive...
, a co-founder of Creative Commons, responded stating that they are not aiming to undermine copyright, and invited ASCAP for a public debate. The offer was turned down by ASCAP's Paul Williams
Paul Williams (songwriter)
Paul Hamilton Williams, Jr. is an Academy Award-winning American composer, musician, songwriter, and actor. He is perhaps best known for popular songs performed by a number of acts in the 1970s including Three Dog Night's "An Old Fashioned Love Song", Helen Reddy's "You and Me Against the World",...
.
See also
- BMIBroadcast Music IncorporatedBroadcast Music, Inc. is one of three United States performing rights organizations, along with ASCAP and SESAC. It collects license fees on behalf of songwriters, composers, and music publishers and distributes them as royalties to those members whose works have been performed...
- Copyright collectiveCopyright collectiveA copyright collective is a body created by copyright law or private agreement which engages in collective rights management...
- PRS for Music
- United States v. ASCAPUnited States v. ASCAPUnited States v. American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers et al., No. 09-0539, 2010 WL 3749292 , was a United States Court of Appeals case involving copyright liability for third-party vendors that provide online music download services...
Further reading
- Blume, Jason (2006). This Business of Songwriting. Billboard Books (New York CityNew York CityNew York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
, New YorkNew YorkNew York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
). ISBN 9780823077595. - Choquette, Frederic, "The Returned Value of PROs", Music Business Journal, Berklee College of MusicBerklee College of MusicBerklee College of Music, located in Boston, Massachusetts, is the largest independent college of contemporary music in the world. Known primarily as a school for jazz, rock and popular music, it also offers college-level courses in a wide range of contemporary and historic styles, including hip...
, May 2011 - Passman, Donald S. (2003). All You Need to Know about the Music Business. Free PressFree Press (publisher)Free Press is a book publishing imprint of Simon and Schuster. It was founded by Jeremiah Kaplan and Charles Liebman in 1947 and was devoted to sociology and religion titles. It was headquartered in Glencoe, Illinois, where it was known as The Free Press of Glencoe...
(New York CityNew York CityNew York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
, New YorkNew YorkNew York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
). ISBN 9780743246378. - Shemel, Sidney; Krasilovsky, M. William (1990). This Business of Music. Billboard Books (New York CityNew York CityNew York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
, New YorkNew YorkNew York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
). ISBN 9780823077069.
External links
- ascap.com, official website
- ascap.com/about/history, history module of ASCAP at its official website
- ascap.com/playback, Playback magazine module at ASCAP's official website