‘By joining ASCAP you can begin to register your songs, collect performance royalties….’
‘That’s funny, Vern, ‘Didn’t they tell you that YOU needed to get a performance set list from Keith’s people’.
‘Why, yes…’
‘But Vernon, they state categorically in their rules, regulations and governing documents that they collect performance royalties for the writer’.
I quote from their website:
“For live concerts, ASCAP uses set lists provided to us by concert promoters, the performing artists and our own members.”
Hmmmmm…
‘Well..honey (he doesn’t really call me that, it just sounded good…I haven’t received anything in the thirteen or so years that Keith has been performing those songs in concert’.
And let me tell you, the evidence is out there.
Log on to you tube.
It’s all there, beautifully documented by the fans cameras’, iPhones’, etc.
The artist is there on stage singing your song and it’s quite possible there’s a kid from the audience on stage, too. Sweet…
That’s a lot of foot work for a person to do.
That’s a tedious task for any individual.
Do you have any idea how many people, emails, phone calls it takes to get that information…for one concert year, let alone years of performances?
But what really bites, and bites really hard is being told by the organization that you are a member of that its your job to do.
EXCUSE ME for being a member!
Unhappily, but sorely in need of these severely back dated funds we contact Keith Urban’s folk.
‘That comes from ASCAP, Vernon. We don’t give out set lists.’
Next follows a barrage of expletives which I choose not to repeat, but as you can imagine and will understand this is extremely frustrating!
I wonder how many writers have missed out on their ‘God given right to their royalties from performances over the years.
It was probably too much trouble getting the concert set list themselves.
Perhaps, even a little bit of ‘well, maybe its just not worth my trouble, it’s too small’.
No earnings are too small and its organizations like ASCAP that bank on, and I mean BANK on the little (but with HUGE talents) guys not going to the trouble and just letting it slide. That’s a very large annual revenue for ASCAP, let alone the interest.
So we go back to ASCAP…but hang on they’re out of the office ’til Tuesday.
“ASCAP receives payment for public performances of songs and compositions by negotiating license fees with the users of music (radio, TV, cable, bars, clubs, restaurants, shopping malls, concert halls and promoters, web sites, airlines, orchestras, etc.) and distributing these monies to members whose works were performed.”
“There are billions of performances licensed by ASCAP each year. ASCAP is committed to paying our members for these performances fairly, accurately and efficiently. ASCAP collects and distributes more money in performance royalty income than any other organization and our payment system is by far the fairest and most objective in the U.S.”
Not so…
check this out, a hugely funny and timely interview with Vernon Rust that we recorded a while ago…
