ASCAP and BMI

[fretman]

Being a newbie I tried to find a discussion on the merits of these two PROs, trying to decide which to join, but didn't find anything. Going online I found Moses Avalon's 3 part blog:
http://www.mosesavalon.com/why-you-shou ... bmi-sesac/
http://www.mosesavalon.com/why-you-shou ... -nonsense/
http://www.mosesavalon.com/why-you-shou ... pays-more/

His generalized summary is:

• If you plan to be earning money from pop songs on the radio you may prefer ASCAP.
  If you plan to be earning money from copyrights that are instrumental soundtracks in films and TV, or in Broadway musicals, you may prefer BMI.
  If you have a fluke hit (that has vocals) and don’t plan on following up with a songwriting career, ASCAP might be the way to go.
  But if you’re in this for the long haul and plan on many hits, especially ones that don’t have vocal performances, BMI’s system my be kinder to you.

Obviously there are probably a TON of generalities here and exceptions undoubtedly abound. But what are you thoughts on this?
Thanks!

[ComposerLDG]

When I affiliated with ASCAP in 1998, the general consensus then was that they were pretty much the same, so just pick the one you like. Whether or not that was good advice then (or now!), I have no idea. Anyway, I went ASCAP and they've never given me any reason to regret my choice.

[Paulie]

They are so close its really a coin flip, IMHO. We could spend equal amounts of time debating the designated hitter versus pitchers batting in baseball, or iOS vs Android, or Mac vs Windows, or Pete Rose in/out, etc.

One thing I learned about BMI is that it was created partially due to the fact that back in the day, ASCAP did not pay royalties for "race records" (black music such as soul, blues, etc.). Not an issue today, but an interesting sign of organizational character. Not a reason to choose one over the other, just interesting to me.

[andygabrys]

interesting.

anectodotal evidence suggests that BMI often pays more than ASCAP for similar TV placements - this comes from members who have a co-write where one is ASCAP and the other BMI.

ASCAP also slashed their BV royalty rate a couple years ago, which might have something to do with the above.

ASCAP allows you to see cue sheets in your account, whereas BMI counts cues added on cue-sheets but you cannot see them.

[Russell Landwehr]

ASCAP allows you to see cue sheets in your account, whereas BMI counts cues added on cue-sheets but you cannot see them.

Yeah, I envy my ASCAP friends that see cue sheets in their account as they are added. With BMI we only get to see where our music was used when we get the check six to nine months (or more) after the music is used.

With BMI I do like how easy it is to get the "publisher's" royalties as "excess writer clearance" instead of registering separately as a Publisher.

[andygabrys]

With BMI I do like how easy it is to get the "publisher's" royalties as "excess writer clearance" instead of registering separately as a Publisher.

good point. although as I have said before I set up a pub account and it was easy and the money was easily recouped.