A performing rights organization (PRO) is a company that collects performance royalties and pays them to the Songwriter and Publisher. Any Publisher or Songwriter can register with a PRO and start collecting royalties owed to them (after the PRO takes their fee).

These companies collect royalties for “public performances,” which includes songs that are:

• Played live (including your own performances)
• Streamed in a public place (in a brewery, a retail store, a restaurant, etc.)
• Used in a TV show or commercial
• Used in a video game or film
• Played on the radio

There are millions of musicians and artists in the United States, so how do they collect all those royalties?

Cue sheets, that’s how.

A cue sheet is a document that outlines the songs used, how much of the song was played, when it was used, by whom, and other info needed to credit the artist. The place using your song (i.e. the TV or film company, restaurant, music venue) must complete these cue sheets and send them to the PRO.

But how does a PRO know if you or someone performed one of your songs live?

Basically, you have to tell them. Both ASCAP and BMI (the two biggest PROs in the U.S.) have an online feature that allows you to submit your setlists. So if you played 10 of your original songs, you log in to your PRO account, list the songs you played, and they will pay you.

PROs are not Publishers, record labels, sync licensing companies, and they can’t copyright your work for you. A PRO doesn’t own your songs, they just collect royalties for songs you own.

They collect performance royalties.

Here’s what PROs do NOT collect for you:

• Mechanical royalties:¹ every time your song is sold digitally or physically (CDs/vinyl) or streamed online, you’re owed a royalty. So the payer could be Spotify, Apple Music, YouTube, or a radio station or TV channel. Your music distributor and a publishing admin company collect these royalties.
• Sync licensing fees: this fee is paid by the creator of video content either directly to you or through a music library or licensing agent/company.
• Digital performance royalties:² this is when places like Pandora, SiriusXM, and other webcasters stream your music. They’re required by law to pay a fee, and SoundExchange will collect those for you.

Any Songwriter, Publisher, or publishing company can join a PRO and start earning royalties (you can be a member of only one PRO at a time). Many indie musicians (like me) are self-published, so I’m both the Songwriter and Publisher, meaning I earn 100% of every royalty my PRO pays me.

If you have your own publishing company, it’s a more involved process and will require a fee, depending on the PRO you choose. And the publishing company and the songwriter of a song can be registered with different PROs.

If you’re in a band, it will probably make the process easier for all of the songwriters of a band to be registered with the same performance rights organization. But it’s not required. So band members who are also the songwriters of a song can register with either ASCAP or BMI, but each individual songwriter can only be registered with one PRO, not both.

If the band has a publishing company (either self-created or a third party), that publishing company can be registered with both ASCAP and BMI to collect royalties for its songwriters through both PROs.

So how do the two giants of performance royalties compare to each other?

First, let’s look at how these two are the same. Both ASCAP and BMI:³

• Have a 50/50 split between Publisher and Songwriter (if you’re a DIY musician, you’re probably both)
• Pay 88% of their collections to their members
• Pay you for playing your own songs live
• Allow you to register your performances online
• Don’t have a recurring membership fee
• Offer perks and special deals (more on that below)

Okay, so that’s all good news for you. The big question here is: how are ASCAP and BMI different?

While ASCAP, which was formed in 1914, has been around longer than BMI (founded in 1939), the latter has more members.

• ASCAP members: 715,000
• BMI members: 900,000

So it’s not surprising that BMI represents more songs overall.

• ASCAP songs represented: 11.5 million⁴
• BMI songs represented: 14.0 million⁵

As with both PROs, it takes a while to get paid after your song is played.

Songwriter payments from ASCAP take about six and a half months after the quarter in which the song was played. Songwriter payments from BMI take about five and a half months after the quarter in which the song was played.

The payment minimum for ASCAP is $1 if you enroll in direct deposit, $100 if you want them to pay you by check. The payment minimum for BMI is $2 if by direct deposit and $250 by check (unless it’s the last quarter of the year, in which case the minimum is $25 by check).⁶

When you register with a PRO, you enter into a term deal. So this means you can’t register those same songs with another PRO while you’re under contract.

The contract with ASCAP is a standard one-year deal that renews automatically. The contract with BMI is a two-year standard deal.

As a DIY musician, “free” is a friendly word, and that’s how BMI won me over. There’s also the idea that if you pay for something (like ASCAP), it offers more. Both sides are valid.

For Songwriters, ASCAP charges a one-time $50 application fee and BMI has no application or signup fees.

This is the category that most people are interested in. What’s in it for me?

So here are the perks of joining ASCAP:

• Access to the I Create Music Expo in Los Angeles
• Access to award shows
• They offer song camps, showcases, workshops and other similar events
• Songwriters Hall of Fame membership discount
• US Alliance Federal Credit Union membership
• Discounts on health, dental, instrument, and life insurance
• Discounts on music-related products and services
• Discounts on hotels and rental cars
• Hotel and rental car discounts

And here are the perks of signing up with BMI:

• They offer songwriting camps, workshops, showcases, etc.
• Access to award shows
• Chance to perform on BMI-branded stages at big music festivals
• Songwriters Hall of Fame discount
• Discounts on Billboard Latin Conference, Video Games Live, and Billboard Touring Conference and Awards
• Discounts on music products and services (like FanBridge and ArtistShare)

If you join a PRO, you’re joining the ranks of some of the most talented and well-known artists today. You know if these artists and their team of professionals find value in joining a PRO, you should too.

• Notable ASCAP members: Ariana Grande, Justin Timberlake, Katy Perry, Kelly Clarkson
• Notable BMI members: Kendrick Lamar⁷, Lady Gaga, Carrie Underwood, Taylor Swift, Sam Smith

The biggest reason to sign up with a PRO is to get the royalties you deserve.

Any time you or someone else performs or streams your song in a public place, you can get paid. If your song is used in a TV show, commercial, or video game, you can get paid. When your music is played on the radio, you can get paid.

But only if you work with a PRO.

Not to mention all the extra goodies they offer, like discounts on services and music-related products, access to showcases and writing camps, and a whole batch of other resources.

And this is all free or very cheap. So really, why not sign up with a PRO?

It’s hard to say if one of these is better than the other, but I’m going to attempt it.

For indie Songwriters who are mostly focused on writing, recording, and being their own Publisher, BMI may be the better option. They offer discounts on songwriting tools and education, like MasterWriter and Berklee Online, and they also give you a Sweetwater discount.

And while BMI does offer opportunities for musicians who want to play live, ASCAP offers a bit more in that regard.

ASCAP and BMI are great, and you should definitely register your songs with one of them. But since we’re on the topic of royalties, I wanted to say a quick thing about mechanical royalties. As I mentioned earlier, PROs do not collect mechanical royalties, so how do you get them?

Streaming service like Spotify and Apple Music pay these mechanical royalties, but if they can’t find you, you won’t get that money. That’s why you need a Publisher, admin publishing company, or royalty collections company.

Yes, your music distributor will collect streaming royalties for any music you release through them. But to make sure you get all the mechanical royalties owed to you, you can sign up with one of the below publishing companies. They collect your mechanical royalties but do not take ownership of any part of your song (all for a small commission of 10-20%):⁸

• CD Baby Pro Publishing (distributor with a publishing admin deal)
• SongTrust (they will also register your catalog with ASCAP/BMI and 40+ other societies, if you’d like)
• Kobalt
• Tunecore Publishing (publishing admin with sync licensing services)
• Sentric Music Publishing

I would say pick one of these companies and sign up. There could be royalties floating around that ASCAP and BMI cannot collect for you. So go connect with a Publisher, admin publishing company, or royalty collections company to ensure you get all of your mechanical royalties.