ASCAP, BMI, SESAC: what a P.R.O. does for you

If you write songs, there’s money with your name on it every time one of them is played in public. A P.R.O. is how it reaches you.

A performing rights organisation (P.R.O.) licenses radio stations, TV networks, streaming services, venues and clubs to play music, collects what they pay, and passes it on to the people who wrote the songs. Not the people who performed or recorded them: the writers.

Which one?

In the US, the main ones are ASCAP, BMI, SESAC and GMR. SESAC and GMR are invite-only, so most independent writers choose between ASCAP and BMI. Both do the same core job; pick one and move on. Outside the US, your country has its own: PRS in the UK, SOCAN in Canada, APRA AMCOS in Australia, GEMA in Germany, SACEM in France.

• You join one, not all of them. In the US you can only be with one P.R.O. as a writer at a time.
• Joining is done online and takes about 15 minutes. Check each one’s site for its current terms.
• It pays the writer’s share. There’s also a publisher’s share; if you don’t have a publisher, a publishing administrator can collect it for you.

Once you’re in, three things

• Register every song after it’s released, with every writer on it and their percentage.
• Get the splits right. On a beat you licensed, the producer is usually a writer too. Your licence says what share they have; copy that onto your registration.
• Add your P.R.O. to your epikbeats.net profile. Contracts on the site ask for it. “Not registered” is a fine answer until you’ve joined.

Writing something you’ll want to register? Open any beat on the site and hit Write: the verse and hook boxes line up with the music.

Start writing