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Ascap, Bmi, And Sesac: A Brief Overview

ASCAP, BMI, AND SESAC: A 
Introduction

As professional musicians, one of the most important aspects of the job is getting paid for our work. One of the ways to get money other than sales on albums and concerts are royalty payments. Royalties are collected based on money earned through publicity such as television, radio, and films. Performance rights organizations(PROs) help to collect royalties and distribute them to copyright holders as well as defend their rights in legal cases. By having a license from these PROs you can use there repertoire for performance and publicity purposes.
In the United States, there are three major PROs and they are the American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers(ASCAP), Broadcast Music, Inc.(BMI), and SESAC(Society of European Stage Authors and Composers). Each of these organizations are very unique from the other but they all basically do the same thing: collect and distribute royalties. Hopefully this paper will help people understand these groups, what they do, and the differences between these group because as a songwriter you can only be apart of one of these societies at a time unlike publishers which can be apart of all three. With that, let's get started!

ASCAP: A Society of Songwriters Helping Other Songwriters

History
ASCAP is the only society out of the three that was created and controlled by composers, songwriters, lyricist, and music publishers. The organization started February 13, 1914 in a hotel in New York. Their basic purpose was to make sure that music creators fairly get paid for there public performances of there work and have their rights protected. Since then, ASCAP has been a leader in performance rights because their members are also the ones running the show, giving a sense of closeness throughout the organization.
Overview of Operations
Finance
ASCAP is a non-profit...