Songwriting Series: Performing Rights Organizations
By Paul Bordenkircher
I’ve had some feedback from the previous installments
in our series asking a lot of questions, but mostly
begging me to slow down! I often forget if you haven’t
been immersed in this part of the industry for quite a
while, some of this can go right over your head. Most of
the questions I received were related to Performing
Rights Organizations (or PRO’s) and what they do.
For any other acronyms and terms you might find
confusing, I’ve also posted a blog on specific publishing
terms at Mesasand.com.
What is a PRO? What Do They Do?
A Performing Rights Organization (aka Performing
Rights Society) is designed to manage one of your
Bundle of Rights: the right to public performance.
Actually, two of your rights--but we’ll get to that a little
later. As we detailed previously, for anyone to use your
music, they must have permission to do so. This is made
possible through some type of license. A PRO takes care
of this for you, and for good reason.
Here’s the best way to explain. Imagine you had a billion dollars, and you plan to spend it making your song the #1 mostplayed song in the US. You would have to contact a radio station, talk to the guy in charge, and negotiate a performance
license--and fee--that you both can agree on. Now repeat it about 15,000 more times. And that’s not even counting the
number of TV stations and internet-based radio stations. You might actually go through all that money before you get done.
Or here’s Plan B. You register your works with a performing rights organization (ASCAP, BMI or SESAC in the United States,
SOCAN in Canada, PRS in England, etc.). Because these PRO’s have already secured licenses with all these stations, your
song can now be played on any one of them. See how much easier that was?
And they do more than just radio and TV. They also license restaurants, retail stores, dance studios, dojos--anywhere music is
performed publicly. And with each license comes a fee that is collected and paid to its members, based on the songs that are
played.
Who Are The PROS?
If you’re not based in the United States, your choice is easy - each country has one performing rights organization with which
you should register. Leave it to America to instill competition in the system, so US-based songwriters have three to pick from.
The deal is exclusive, so you must pick only one for ALL your works. We’ll get to the fourth one in a bit.
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ASCAP: American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers. The original PRO, formed in 1914. (ASCAP.com)
BMI: Broadcast Music Inc. Formed in 1939 as a competitor to ASCAP. (BMI.com)
SESAC: Originally a PRO in Europe, it expanded to the US decades ago. (SESAC.com)