Well, here's an interesting observation of differences between ASCAP and
BMI, with the caution that it is now two years old, and things may have
changed since then; I've removed names but the gist is pretty clear.
>After spending a better part of my Sunday morning reading the posts from
>the past on ASCAP, I felt compelled to write about what I consider a
>dilemma. X and I write songs together. When we began publishing them,
>ten years ago, we were asked which "society" we would like to belong to,
>ASCAP or BMI. Since X had already been affiliated with BMI, he chose
>to stay with them. I decided, as an experiment, to affiliate with ASCAP.
>Now, ten years later, we can compare our income from song writing. Mind
>you, we've had no "hits" other than bluegrass covers, and songs from our
>own albums. Time after time we receive "regrets, no air play" in US
>royalties, and a trickling of royalties from foreign countries, but over
>the years, we have seen a trend. Through ASCAP I make about one third more
>than X The reason why is because ASCAP offers an award to it's
>members who can attest that their material is being played on radio (such
>as college and public stations that aren't monitored) but they are not
>collecting on these songs. Each quarter I receive $115.00 award money. BMI
>doesn't really monitor college station either, and they don't give awards.
Again, I caution that this may not be the current situation. On the other
hand, it may be, and if so, it might make a difference to some folks.
Jon Weisberger Kenton County, KY [EMAIL PROTECTED]
http://home.fuse.net/jonweisberger/
