ASCAP Payment System

Keeping Track of Performances

Each year, there are billions of performances of ASCAP music in the hundred thousand or more broadcast and live venues we license throughout the country. Whenever it is economically sensible, ASCAP will conduct a census survey, or complete count, of performances in a medium. ASCAP is able to count all performances in a medium when the cost of collecting and processing accurate performance information is a low enough percentage of the revenues generated by that medium.

Where a census survey is impractical, we conduct a sample survey designed to be a statistically accurate representation of performances in a medium. All times of the day, all days of the year, every region of the country and all types and sizes of stations are represented in the ASCAP sample surveys. The greater the fee a licensee pays us, the more often that licensee is sampled. For example, a station that pays us $20,000 in licensee fees is sampled twice as much as a station that pays ASCAP only $10,000.

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