BMI or ASCAP?

[jafo37]

Hello: It is I Jafo37 again asking questions. Can everyone give me thier take on BMI or ASCAP and the reason you joined either. The pro and cons.Thanks Jafo37

[davewalton]

Quote:Hello: It is I Jafo37 again asking questions. Can everyone give me thier take on BMI or ASCAP and the reason you joined either. The pro and cons.Thanks Jafo37 It seems that ultimately there really isn't a difference and it's impossible to tell truth from fiction. I have a music library owner telling me that BMI is so bad that some other library owners won't do business with BMI writers and I had a friend tell me the exact same thing about ASCAP. The one difference I know for sure has to do with infomercials. ASCAP pays regular ASCAP rate while BMI only pays 1/3 the BMI rate. It's hard to tell what that really means unless you split writer's share between an ASCAP and BMI person to see the actual dollar difference. Initially I had some customer service problems with the BMI Nashville office here in the Midwest, but once I got a supervisor and let them know about the problem, I was given the red carpet treatment and they spent all kinds of time and answered all my questions.I also know that BMI will pay you (the writer) both the writer's and publisher's share without doing a separate registration as a publisher if there is no outside publisher. Someone from ASCAP will have to comment to see if ASCAP does the same thing or if they require you to register as a publisher in addition to a writer.HTH,Dave

[edteja]

I was in ASCAP years ago, for reasons I don't quite recall except that I think some of my songwriting heroes were in it. I dropped out and when I wanted to join a PRO again, I thought I'd try BMI. But BMI said: "YOu need a release from ASCAP, because our database says you are a member of ASCAP." So I called ASCAP. They couldn't find me in the database. (They weren't computerized when I was in.) Since I wasn't in the database they couldn't give me a release, since there was nothing to release me from. So I called BMI. THe woman was extremely rude, told me I was an idiot, because she was looking at my name in the database as an ASCAP writer (although she couldn't or wouldn't give me the CAE), and that there was no way I was joining BMI without a release. So I called ASCAP. The lady said "Hmmm" and looked in the database again. She said I wasn't there so there was no way to release me. So I said: "Then can I join ASCAP" and she said "Sure." So I belong to ASCAP.The interesting part is that I will never know which of these two people was nuts. However the difference between them in my incredibly limited exposure (note the huge disclaimer folks) is that ASCAP was polite and at least pretended to be helpful and BMI was rude, arrogant, and tried to make me out to be an idiot. Other than that...quien sabe?

[jafo37]

Thanks for your wisdom. It sounds like BMI is one point behind so-far i'm hoping more come forward with info on these two organizations because I will be needing to join one or the other in the near future.

[allends]

A recent good discussion on this topic was posted here:http://taxi.proboards27.com/index.cgi?a ... 841&page=1

[jafo37]

Thanks for the info allends.

[brightbird]

Quote:The interesting part is that I will never know which of these two people was nuts. However the difference between them in my incredibly limited exposure (note the huge disclaimer folks) is that ASCAP was polite and at least pretended to be helpful and BMI was rude, arrogant, and tried to make me out to be an idiot. FWIW, I would believe BMI. How would they have known you were an ASCAP member if they didn't have a record? ASCAP claimed they didn't have a record. That's either terrible record keeping or an outright lie. Seems like BMI has better record keeping to me.

[edteja]

Actually BMI knew because on the form it asks if you have ever been a member of a PRO and I said I had been in ASCAP. So she could have been making up the entry in the database. That does not mean she was. ASCAP may have played foul to keep me from joining BMI and having them earn all the money... hmmm, given the amount of money involved here I can't figure it at all. I don't know. Just people being human I suppose.

[anne]

I was researching PROs last night and am going to call them to see if I can get a "vibe", and ask them to see which is more helpful. I live in New Mexico east of Albuquerque (Hi Traveling Ed) so I'm not near an office...Happy to post any info if there is anything to post -

[anne]

Ascap was friendlier. They have a great deal of easy to understand info on the website as well and they use tv placements as an example: http://www.ascap.com/about/payment/Hope it helps with your decision making. Off to fill out my application...