ASCAP, BMI, or neither?

I think it might be slightly easier to change later from ASCAP to BMI than the other way around if you're not sure. I think BMI gives you better publishing advances if you get to a level where that matters but I seem to recall that BMI works it somehow where they stagger the terms of your writing/publisher share collecting somehow so you have to give up 6 months' of royalties on one side or the other when you terminate the publishing agreement. Anyway, ask them about how to get out of it before you sign up.

Watch ASCAP President Paul Williams Perform With The Roots on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon

In other news, PAUL WILLIAMS is the PRESIDENT of ASCAP.

Oh, so this is old news?

We're so outraged and shocked by this news that we don't even know how to react.

It was a bombshell for ILX. They were shocked. And stunned.

http://bandwidth.wamu.org/ascap-to-st-stephens-church-pay-up/

ASCAP wants fees from church that frequently hosts punk rock benefit shows---

Andersen confirms that this isn’t the first time St. Stephen’s has heard from ASCAP. In February 2013, a general licensing manager from the organization contacted the church soon after Ian MacKaye and Amy Farina’s band, The Evens, played a Positive Force event there. The manager said the show needed to be “properly licensed.” The church declined to pay, Andersen says. It seems today’s email was a followup; the invoice sent this morning covers February 2013 to December 2014.

Ian MacKaye says his band has no tie to ASCAP. “The Evens’ songs are not registered with any performance-rights organizations,” he writes in an email. “The band plays no covers, and owns 100 percent of the publishing of the songs we’ve written. ASCAP has zero control, interests, or rights to our music. I don’t know why they want to get into this mess.”

Also: St. Stephen’s is a church, and the Evens show was a benefit for its building fund, Andersen says. Does that let them off the hook?

ASCAP says no. Vincent Candilora, ASCAP’s executive vice president of licensing, says the only way St. Stephen’s could play ASCAP music fee-free would be if it was played during a religious service

Weird.

When I booked shows at a small non-profit space, some ASCAP goon came nosing around, so we put up a sign saying "Musicians and DJs: Do not play ASCAP songs! We are a non-ASCAP space!" Of course, none of us checked if this was ever followed (nor did we have any intention of enforcing it), but it kept the goon away.

yeah a lot of coffe houses etc. have had to do that, these ASCAP guys are classic thugs and I'm pretty sure Ian & Amy know rad ex-punk DC lawyers who would just love to take this on.

BMI bought by a private equity firm? Oh I'm SURE that's fine.

https://www.bmi.com/news/entry/new-mountain-capital-announces-majority-growth-investment-in-bmi

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A colleague suggested that the next step for BMI may be to purge their roster of members whose quarterly earnings are insufficient: another step in isolating the successful from the masses in the music business.