Music Industry Discussion

BMI or ASCAP?

I just found out I can join only one OR the other: not both.
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I heard BMI includes radio stations, and ASCAP does not.
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Any feedback from anyone who is a member of these organizations?
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I'm only looking for answers from people who have actually joined one of these organizations; thanks . . .

well John looks like this site is just loaded with Pro's eh!
Till our fingers bleed brothers, till our fingers bleed!

ASCAP was founded and is still run by the composers, authors and publishers which makes up it's membership. BMI, on the other hand, is run by broadcasters, and are generally the same people that don't want to pay for use of music (broadcasters make money through advertising, and the more of it they can keep, the better). This seems, to me anyway, to be a conflict of interest. I would rather have people on my side, helping me to make a living from my music.

As a writer, you can only belong to one of the 3 performing rights organizations. As a publisher, you can belong to all 3, which is important if you want to publish other writers' works. If you are going to self publish, please bear in mind that a publisher can only publish songs owned by a member of that organization.

ASCAP seems to pay better over time than BMI who seems to pay in a large amount in the beginning and then taper off.

I know way more people who use ASCAP and they are people who have worked in the industry for a long time.

Thanks.

this makes me wonder a bit.i know quite a bit about this stuff from being stupid enough to NOt copyright a few gems long ago.when i did copyright my stuff i went with ascap never thinking about bmi.
but if you look at many early beatles tunes ,some are bmi and others are ascap.they among many others,went with both.was this because they were british and bmi is more in england than here is beyond me..and the laws may have changed.if anyone knows this tell me how this could have been. a rare copy of meet the beatles has ascap or bmi..on some songs..another rare copy has just ascap! and yet another copy has bmi and NOTHING after some other songs.

I'm ASCAP myself, and most of my friends are as well, though my friends who are mostly making their money through songwriting prefer SESAC.

Ooh here we go, maybe you can deride him for not being in one of your sacred 2 music organizations, hmm?