Interesting. My band plays about 90% originals with a few covers sprinkled in. Maybe we should get with ASCAP and get a check. Does anyone else here do this?
And really, how can I change my thread title? I feel bad now that it is wrong.
http://www.ascap.com/about/payment/paymentintro.html
I'd check out that for an intro into how it works, there's a link at the bottom on how to 'register your works'. Just keep following through and it explains everything.
According to their website, the following pay licensing fees to them:
* The three major television networks: ABC, CBS and NBC
* Public television - the Public Broadcasting System (PBS) and its affiliated stations
* The majority of the 11,000 cable systems and virtually all of the cable program services
* About 11,500 local commercial radio stations
* About 2,000 non-commercial radio broadcasters, including college radio stations and National Public Radio (NPR) stations
* Hundreds of background music services (such as MUZAK, airlines)
* About 2,300 colleges and universities
* About 5,700 concert presenters
* Over 1,000 symphony orchestras
* Over 2,000 web sites
* Tens of thousands of "general" licensees: bars, restaurants, hotels, ice and roller skating rinks, circuses, theme parks, veterans and fraternal organizations and more.
Vipercussionist said:
HA HA!! They're not handing out checks to just ANYONE, you'd get paid of others are playing/using YOUR songs, not if YOU play them, you already OWN them!!!
L0L!!!
Unfortunately, you're incorrect. You do get paid to perform your own songs. Venues are paying for the rights to have your songs performed, if it happens to be you performing them, you get paid twice: once for whatever you make on the door/whatever the venue gives you, and once by ASCAP.
It's basically a brilliant system to protect songwriters.
Pavlos: the thing to sort out before doing this is who in the band actually wrote the tunes. If you're willing to split the songwriting credit 4 ways then it'll benefit the whole band, otherwise it'll really only benefit the person who actually wrote the songs. I'd seriously sort it out before you start trying to claim money, as if you wait till after you're going to have massive problems.