Matthew Cepican ASCAP Publishing Information

ASCAP started off as a way to get artists paid. Irving Berlin, who wrote "White Christmas" and countless other famous tunes, was an early pioneer. The music industry, in the days of sheet music before the advent of radio, made money by selling sheet music that was mostly used to play the piano. In the days before radio and television, the piano was the "entertainment center" for many households. Sheet music was a primary source of income for songwriters. When radio was invented, there was no governing agency to collect money for artists for records played on the radio, and that is where ASCAP really became a tour de force in the music industry. There are exciting parallels between adaptation of the music industry to the advent of radio, and the adaptation of the music industry to modern-day "Digital Distribution" via the internet. Understanding a few basic premises about ASCAP and other publishing rights organizations is an important part of understanding the ways in which the music industry is adapting in the age of digital distribution, but first, a little background on ASCAP.

"What Is ASCAP?
ASCAP is a membership association of more than 300,000 U.S. composers, songwriters, lyricists, and music publishers of every kind of music. Through agreements with affiliated international societies, ASCAP also represents hundreds of thousands of music creators worldwide. ASCAP is the only U.S. performing rights organization created and controlled by composers, songwriters and music publishers, with a Board of Directors elected by and from the membership.

ASCAP protects the rights of its members by licensing and distributing royalties for the non-dramatic public performances of their copyrighted works. ASCAP's licensees encompass all who want to perform copyrighted music publicly. ASCAP makes giving and obtaining permission to perform music simple for both creators and users of music.

Who Is ASCAP?
ASCAP is its members — creative people who write the music and lyrics that enrich lives in every corner of the world.

ASCAP is home to the greatest names in American music, past and present — from Duke Ellington to Dave Matthews, from George Gershwin to Stevie Wonder, from Leonard Bernstein to Beyoncé, from Marc Anthony to Alan Jackson, from Henry Mancini to Howard Shore — as well as many thousands of writers in the earlier stages of their careers."

source:
http://www.ascap.com/about

Today, we have MTV, internet, radio and many other ways that people can access music. Some may recall picking up the phone to call a radio station to request a song, and the most requested song gets the #1 spot in the rotation at any given station, generally. Interesting to note, in the days before radio, it was alot more common for people to go to "playhouses" to watch the local orchestra perform all the latest "pop music" of the day. The orchestra would play according to how loud the audience clapped for songs and this was the musicians way of knowing what songs were #1, so to speak. Even then, "payola," the practice of "paying money for plays" was incorporated by paying members of the audience to clap louder for certain songs. "Payola" is more common in radio, where huge record labels pay the radio station to play their latest song. The formula is not rocket science, radio plays equals records sales. I will discuss payola in greater detail later on.