Legal Definitions - ASCAP

ASCAP, which stands for the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers, is a performing rights organization (PRO) in the United States.

Its primary function is to protect the copyrights of its members – songwriters, composers, and music publishers – by monitoring the public performance of their musical works. ASCAP collects licensing fees from businesses and venues that use copyrighted music, such as radio stations, television networks, restaurants, and concert halls. These collected fees are then distributed as royalties to its members, ensuring they are compensated for the use of their creative works.

Here are some examples of how ASCAP operates:

• Imagine a popular local radio station that broadcasts a wide variety of music throughout the day. For every song it plays that is part of ASCAP's extensive catalog, the radio station must pay licensing fees to ASCAP. ASCAP then collects these fees and distributes them as royalties to the songwriters, composers, and publishers who created those specific songs, compensating them for the public broadcast of their work.

• Consider a bustling coffee shop that plays background music to enhance the ambiance for its customers. Even though the music is not the main attraction, playing copyrighted songs in a public setting constitutes a "public performance." The coffee shop obtains a blanket license from ASCAP, allowing it to legally play any music represented by ASCAP. In turn, ASCAP collects these licensing fees and ensures that the creators of the music receive their share of royalties.

• A large arena hosts a touring band that performs a mix of their original songs and popular cover songs. If some of the cover songs were written by ASCAP members, the arena, as the venue hosting the public performance, is responsible for securing the necessary licenses. ASCAP collects fees from the arena for the right to publicly perform these copyrighted works, and then distributes those royalties to the original songwriters and publishers of the cover songs.