In Depth ASCAP question

[flood]

I have emailed ascap, haven't heard back yet. Honestly, their response times to email are less than inspiring.I have a larger number of tracks in constant use at a theme park in Orlando. These pieces air dozens of times per hour in some cases. Think of the looped music and voice intros you hear as you wait in line to get on a roller coaster at one of the theme parks.When I produced these (I voiced them AND composed the music for many of them), some of the tracks didn't even have titles.These were the basis for my ascap membership, which has since been approved.I registered all the songs with ascap, no problem. I even named them after the specific rides the songs are used for, hoping to make it easy. I didn't feel great about naming one song "Ye Ole Ice Cream Parlour", but that is where it is used Presumably, these will air dozens or even hundreds of times daily for the next year or two, possibly longer, so I imagine the royalties will be at least worth a tank or two of gas.How does ascap know when and how often these are used for royalty purposes?Anyone experience something similar?If no one has any experience with this, that's cool. I will post ascap's response when I get it, and will certainly follow up with the results of this experience, in the hope that it helps someone else.Oh, and the park is monitored by ascap, it is one of the Universal parks.Best wishes!Leon

[thepoet]

I'll tell you this much...I'm a rock radio personality and have worked at several different radio stations and I know first hand, exactly how the BMI/ASCAP process works, where radio air play is concerned. But...I'm not sure if the process would be the same. I'm assuming, it would be fairly similar. Here's the way it works :For example : I do mornings, so a couple times per year during my show, I'm asked to keep a log of exactly what I played between 6-10 a.m. for an entire week. Title, performer, composer, etc. One station that I recently worked at, still does it this way. Each jock actually has a say in "who gets paid & who doesn't". If I wanted to make sure Nickelback gets an extra dime, I'd be sure and play a Nickelback tune, or at least write down that I did. Shady. Very shady. However, some stations, like the one I'm at now, uses a computer print-off that details exactly what aired and when. This is better because you can't fabricate it. One could still play a lot of songs from a certain band or individual to make sure they got extra royalties, BUT they can't just fake it. I'm assuming, this is something like they do at a Theme Park like you've described. They probably have a computer record that is printed off and filed for ASCAP/BMI purposes. Hopefully they do anyway. Hope this helped. Without asking them directly, it's probably the best info you can get.What I hate about the process : They base your royalties off of one specific week. Far from accurate.