3Seas wrote: ↑Fri Jul 15, 2022 5:14 pm
Am I correct to understand in the US there are three different organizations (not requiring being invited) to cover the spectrum of Music Royalties collection and payment?
More or less. I would call it three categories of organizations, rather than three organizations. For example, in the PROs category, there are 4 organizations (ASCAP, BMI, SESAC, and GMR), albeit only 2 you can join without being invited or at least being approved to join (ASCAP, BMI).
There are also some other organizations that deal with various sorts of royalty collections and payments, some of which you can join without being invited. For example, there is the Harry Fox Agency, Music Reports, and probably others I'm not thinking of at the moment.
3Seas wrote: ↑Fri Jul 15, 2022 5:14 pm
How does each cover a different part of the music royalties spectrum? Is there overlap?
The three specific areas you list do not have overlap, but there can be overlap with some others. More thoughts on that below.
3Seas wrote: ↑Fri Jul 15, 2022 5:14 pm
Also am I correct that it's possible to be a member/registered of all three at the same time?
Yes.
3Seas wrote: ↑Fri Jul 15, 2022 5:14 pm
1) PRO (BMI or ASCAP)
These, along with SESAC and GMR, are performance rights organization and specifically collect performance royalties on behalf of songwriters and publishers (including self-publishing songwriters). A songwriter can only be a member of one PRO, and any publishing entity associated with that songwriter's publishing share must be in the same PRO as that songwriter. An organization-evel publisher can be affiliated with multiple PROs, but will have different named publishing entities for each PRO. Some PROs, such as ASCAP, do require that there be a named publishing entity to collect the publishing share of the royalties, while others (at least BMI) will pay the songwriter the publisher's share if there is no named publisher.
Performing rights include radio play, streaming, other broadcast sources (e.g. TV, satellite radio, etc.), and live music (e.g. in bars, arenas, etc.) -- I may be forgetting some other possibilities.
3Seas wrote: ↑Fri Jul 15, 2022 5:14 pm
2) Sound Exchange
SoundExchange is the exclusive organization to collect performance royalties for recordings, which they are collecting on behalf of record companies, recording artists, and certain musicians who may be involved in the recording. If you own both the recording copyright and are the artist on the recording, you may have both copyright owner and artist memberships (and there can also be musician payments through unions for a certain share of the royalties).
These collections are for non-interactive digital performances, which could include satellite radio and non-interactive streaming (e.g. Pandora Radio). Most notably, they do not include terrestrial broadcast radio, as US terrestrial radio stations do not currently pay royalties for the recordings they play (they only pay royalties for the songs behind those recordings).
3Seas wrote: ↑Fri Jul 15, 2022 5:14 pm
3) Mechanical Licensing Collective (MLC)
The MLC is a new organization (started collecting last year) that specifically collects mechanical royalties for interactive streaming and downloads for music ISPs that want them to do it (some may cover this in other ways). They collect for songwriters and publishers, but, unlke the PROs, only pay publishers (including self-published songwriters). So, if the publisher and songwriter are separate, the MLC pays the publisher, and the publisher will need to pay the songwriter the writer's share. This can come into play if using an administrative publisher (e.g. CD Baby Pro) since the collections would go down that route.
Besides these three organizations (and I'm a member of ASCAP, SoundExchange, and the MLC), some other organizations that come to mind include Music Reports and the Harry Fox Agency, though I'm sure there are others that aren't coming to mind. HFA historically was one of the main organizations for administering and collecting U.S. mechanical royalties for publishers (and, indirectly, songwriters), and they are still one of the main organizations that collects mechanicals for physical product (e.g. CDs, vinyl), though HFA also covers other territory nowadays, and I believe they have some international relationships, though I'm not clear on what all they do (I'm not a member). If you were using the HFA for your mechanicals, they'd likely be the one getting the payments from the MLC and would pay you your share from those collections.
I'm not 100% clear on all Music Reports does, despite being a member. They license for various types of uses (e.g. karaoke, exercise equipment, etc.), and they've also licensed to the streaming and interactive services. Most of my payments from them have come from Amazon Music (we're typically talking penny levels, but they are weird in that they have sent me checks that have less value than the postage used to mail them), and I've seen TikTok appear in my reports from them, too. Maybe they're overlapping with the territory the MLC now covers for organizations that use them. I think they were a main organization that covered this base prior to the introduction of the MLC as I also used to get payments from them for Groove Music (Microsoft's former music ISP).
In the case of Music Reports, I have no clue how I initially encountered them, but they handle clearance and collections for publishers (including self-published songwriters)