BMI vs ASCAP

[nickfever]

Quote:2 Things that helped me make my choice:1- I'm not sure about BMI, but ASCAP has a great program called ASCAP Plus for people starting out. Every year you can submit to them all places your music was performed publicly (gigs of yours, any time someone played your songs, limited one-off play on local radio and TV), and get paid up to $8000 per year depending on how much your work was performed. I love it because I'm not at the point where I'm getting the type of exposure to warrant large-scale royalty collection but can still get some income from my writing.Really useful info.

[davidharrell]

"It's a small thing, but ASCAP's history was to defend writers, whereas BMI was created when ASCAP went on strike and the broadcasters needed strikebreakers. Nowadays of course they're both similar, but the legendary writers from the early part of the last century were all ASCAP."I had always read that the big difference between ASCAP and BMI is that ASCAP (in its early days) refused membership to black composers. From BMI's website: "BMI's formation provided an "open door" to writers of all genres of music, many of whom had no prior access to performing right representation."Some more background here: http://www.capsnews.org/apn2007-3.htmPerhaps it's silly to make a decision based on an organization's behavior in the 1930s and 40s, but that's why I opted to join BMI as a writer. Though I'm having some second thoughts -- I wish BMI had the something like ASCAP's Plus program...

[silverorlead]

May 14, 2008, 11:33am, davidharrell wrote:"I had always read that the big difference between ASCAP and BMI is that ASCAP (in its early days) refused membership to black composers. From BMI's website: "BMI's formation provided an "open door" to writers of all genres of music, many of whom had no prior access to performing right representation."Good point man! I hadn't really thought about it that way, obviously the fact that society was overall far more racist in the pre-civil-rights-movement days contributed to the ASCAP stance (but of course doesn't excuse it). The broadcasters started BMI and tried to pitch it as just that: open to all comers, not just the established writers (who just happened to be on strike at the time due to being taken advantage of by the broadcasters, who needed cheap music)It's fascinating to me how none of these situations is ever cut and dried... -Bri