ASCAP Answers: Understanding International Payments

By Etan Rosenbloom, Membership/Marketing

International Payments

When I pick up the phone to take a general membership call, there's about a 50/50 chance that the question will be about an international matter. The fact is, ASCAP music is truly global music, and the spread of digital technology is only increasing how far your music can travel. According to our most recent Annual Report, 31% of ASCAP's revenue in 2008 came from performances generated outside the United States, a higher rate than either of the previous two years. International performances represent an increasingly significant opportunity for ASCAP members, so it's important to understand how they generate royalties.

When you see performances show up on your quarterly international statements, you'll notice that each one indicates a specific country of origin. ASCAP has reciprocal representation agreements with over 90 performing rights organizations (PROs) around the world. These organizations collect public performance royalties for a specific territory. Sometimes the territory can be a single country, and sometimes a PRO will represent multiple countries. We license the works of their members in the U.S., and they license the works of our members in their territories.

ASCAP distributes international royalties on a quarterly basis (click here for our distribution dates) Whenever you get paid for an international performance, it's because a foreign society has collected data about, and royalties generated by, that performance. ASCAP regularly circulates information about our repertory to all the foreign societies, and they do the same for us. How does a foreign society know the details about your works? ASCAP submits information about songs and music in audio-visual programs to CIS-Net, the international performing rights community's on-line database used by societies around the world.

In general, the core function of foreign PROs is to pay out performance royalties, much like ASCAP. However, foreign PROs differ from ASCAP in a few important ways.

Film Music: Foreign PROs collect royalties for film music performed at movie theaters, something that ASCAP and other US performing rights societies cannot for legal reasons. Many ASCAP members that work primarily in the film world get significant income from these performances in foreign theaters.

Performance Types: Foreign PROs differ as to what types of performances fall under their surveys. For example, GEMA (Germany) pays out on most commercials, while at this time, SOCAN (Canada) only pays out on commercials of 61 seconds or longer, and UBC (Brazil) does not pay out on commercials at all.

Live Performances: While ASCAP pays out for live performances on the 200 top grossing domestic tours of each year, many foreign societies are able to collect and distribute on a larger number of live performances. When you perform overseas, let ASCAP know and we'll let the society in question know that we are expecting royalties. ASCAP's International Performance Notification Form lists all the necessary information and can be found on our website at http://www.ascap.com/concert/international-form.html.

Timing/Frequency: While PRS (UK), SOCAN (Canada) and SACM (Mexico) pay quarterly, it generally takes a bit longer to get paid for international performances than domestic performances. Most foreign societies distribute twice a year. A few important societies - GEMA (Germany) and BUMA (The Netherlands) among them - pay once per year. As a result, each one of ASCAP's four annual international distributions will include a different mix of societies.

One last tidbit: until 2009, both foreign PROs and ASCAP would deduct a small percentage of incoming revenue for their operating expenses. Now ASCAP no longer deducts its 3% overhead, which means more money for you!

Now that you're all experts in international performance income, you can get back to writing all that fantastic music! We'll handle the rest.

Some helpful links:
-The ASCAP International Advantage
-ASCAP International Writer/Publisher Statement Guides
-List of foreign societies with which we have reciprocal agreements