Once that cue sheet is filled out it has to be sent to the respective PRO(s). What Are Cue Sheets?Ĭue sheets are documents that outline: songs used, the owner of the song, how long the song was used, when, by who, and so on.
The method of tracking this activity is done through the use of cue sheets and digital monitoring.
Once the royalties are collected, the PRO takes their fee and then sends the remaining amount to its members: These members consist of, artists, composers, producers, publishers, etc. Let’s get started: What Is a Performing Rights Organization?Ī Performing Rights Organization (PRO for short) is a company whose sole purpose is to collect its member’s royalties. Now, the intent of this post is not to start another debate, but to educate, giving you what you need to make your own decision.īefore I go into the Pros and Cons of each PRO, I’ll explain what a Performing Rights Organization is and why you need to be signed up with one.
You need data such as the number of gigs, which venues, times cue sheets were sent, radio stations and or TV/Film companies that licensed the music, times of airplay, length of airplay, etc.Īll those little factors make a huge difference and without them, debates are a waste of time. In order to have a semi-accurate answer, you’ll need to track a broad portion of users from both PROs (which isn’t realistic). So you continue researching only to find yourself confused by the hundreds of articles and debates involving the two organizations, but no definitive answer on which PRO is better between ASCAP and BMI. Your next question is: Which is best for me BMI or ASCAP? In short, you need one in order to get paid/collect performance royalties. Both GMR and SESAC are invite-only at the time of this writing. In this post, we’ll focus on the two music makers are most like to sign up with and that’s BMI or ASCAP. That research will lead you to 3 (or 4) organizations:Īll of these Performing Rights Organizations do the exact same thing, but slightly different. ASCAP or BMI, which is better? We can all agree this is a popular question amongst many artists, producers, and songwriters who are new to the business side of music.Īs a music creator, you may have stumbled across an article, video, or some type of seminar that spoke about an artist or producer getting their music placed within Film or TV sometimes even video games.įrom there you conduct research and find that you need to be signed up with a Performance Rights Organization (PRO) in order to get paid (collect royalty payments).