American Society of Composers, Publishers and Authors
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| Abbreviation | ASCAP |
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| Formation | February 13, 1914 |
| Type | Not-for-profit |
| Headquarters | New York City, New York, U.S. |
| Website | ascap.com |
The American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP /ˈæskæp/) is an American not-for-profit performance-rights organization (PRO) that protects its members' musical copyrights 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 2012, ASCAP collected over US$941 million in licensing fees and distributed $828.7 million in royalties to its members, with an 11.6 percent operating expense ratio. As of July 2013, ASCAP membership included over 460,000 songwriters, composers, and music publishers.
In the United States, ASCAP competes with two other PROs — Broadcast Music, Inc. (BMI) and the Society of European Stage Authors and Composers (SESAC).
Unlike collecting societies outside of the United States, ASCAP contract is non-exclusive, and although it is not so simple for a foreign person to join ASCAP, it is possible. ASCAP has an office in the United Kingdom. As the artist agreement is non-exclusive, authors can license using a Creative Commons license. The ASCAP bill of rights states, "we have the right to choose when and where our creative works may be used for free". If an author is going to use a Creative Commons license with another's works, this is the only author's rights organisation that has a non-exclusive contract that a foreign person can join. If an author uses a Creative Commons license and is not a member of a performing rights organisation, and the works would generate royalties, these royalties are collected and given to publishers and artists that are members of these organisations.
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