General · EdgepediaSeptember 17, 20267 min read

American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers

The American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP) is an American performing rights organization (PRO) that licenses the public performance of its members' musical works, collects the fees, and distributes the royalties to songwriters, composers, and music publishers. Founded in New York City on February 13, 1914, it is the oldest music performing rights organization in the United States.¹^•² It is a nonprofit membership association owned and governed by its members, and in 2025 it reported $1.945 billion in revenue and $1.759 billion available for royalty distributions to more than 1.1 million members.³

Key fact	Detail
Founded	February 13, 1914, New York City, by composers and publishers including Victor Herbert and John Philip Sousa¹^•⁴
Structure	Nonprofit, member-owned; it describes itself as the only US PRO not owned by private equity or outside investors³
Scale (2025)	More than 1.1 million members; repertory of over 20 million musical works; $1.945 billion revenue, $1.759 billion available for distributions³^•⁵
Operating economics	10% overhead rate; about 90 cents of every dollar collected returned to members as royalties³
Legal framework	Operating under a federal antitrust consent decree entered in 1941, amended in 1950 and 2001⁶
Sister organizations	BMI (founded 1939) and SESAC (founded 1930), plus the invitation-only Global Music Rights (founded 2013)⁷^•⁸
Charitable arm	The ASCAP Foundation, established in 1975 with a bequest from songwriter Jack Norworth's estate⁹

What ASCAP does

ASCAP licenses the nondramatic public performance right in the musical works of its members. Any business that plays music publicly, a radio or TV station, a bar or restaurant, a streaming service, must obtain a license covering the ASCAP repertory, and an ASCAP license covers only that repertory; a venue playing music from several PROs' catalogs may need separate licenses from BMI, SESAC, and Global Music Rights as well.¹⁰

The money collected is distributed to members after operating expenses. ASCAP describes its overhead rate as 10 percent, the lowest among US PROs by its own account, and returns roughly 90 cents of each dollar collected as royalties; it charges no commission and takes no profit.³ Royalties are split 50 percent to the writer and 50 percent to the publisher, and a member must register a publishing company with ASCAP to collect the publisher's share.¹⁰

A PRO covers only one royalty stream. Mechanical royalties on streaming and downloads are administered in the United States by the Mechanical Licensing Collective, created by the Music Modernization Act of 2018, and digital performance royalties for sound recordings are collected by SoundExchange; a songwriter registered only with a PRO leaves those streams uncollected.¹¹^•¹²

Founding and early years

The legal foundation came from the 1909 Copyright Act, which gave composers an exclusive right to publicly perform their works for profit but left the terms undefined, and policing performances in thousands of restaurants and venues was impossible for individual composers.¹³ In October 1913 the composer Victor Herbert, his attorney Nathan Burkan, and other composers and publishers met at Lüchow's restaurant in New York to solve the problem; at a second meeting at the Hotel Claridge in Times Square on February 13, 1914, with more than 100 composers present, ASCAP was born.¹³ Composer Victor Herbert served as director and vice president until his death in 1924.¹

By the end of 1914 ASCAP had signed approximately 85 licensees at rates of five to fifteen dollars per month; the first licensee was Rector's Restaurant in New York, whose license in October 1914 permitted its live orchestra to perform ASCAP music.¹³^•¹⁴ A few years later ASCAP made its first royalty distribution to members, about $82,000.¹³

Two court decisions secured the business model. In Herbert v. Shanley Co. (1917), Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr. held that music played in a restaurant was performed "for profit" even without an admission charge, because it contributed to the business's overall profit. In 1923, M. Witmark & Sons v. L. Bamberger & Co. extended the same reasoning to radio broadcasts.¹³

Antitrust consent decree

In 1941 the Department of Justice sued ASCAP under the Sherman Act over the market power created by aggregating public performance rights, and ASCAP entered a consent decree that remains in force. The decree prohibits ASCAP from taking an exclusive grant of rights from members, requires it to charge similar fees to similarly situated licensees, and protects members' ability to license their works directly. It has been amended twice, in 1950 and 2001; the 2001 amendment expanded alternatives to the blanket license for background music providers and internet companies.⁶^•¹⁵^•¹⁶

The Department of Justice has periodically reviewed the decrees, most recently in 2014–2015 and 2019, and in 2021 closed its review without modification.⁶ In 2016 ASCAP paid $1.75 million to settle a civil contempt claim after entering about 150 exclusive contracts with songwriters and publishers in violation of the decree's prohibition on exclusive licensing; the settlement also removed publisher board members from involvement in ASCAP's licensing activities.¹⁷ The Music Modernization Act later changed rate-court procedure for ASCAP and BMI by assigning rate disputes on a rotating basis among judges of the Southern District of New York rather than to a single judge.¹²

The US PRO landscape

ASCAP competes with BMI, founded in 1939 by radio broadcasters as an alternative to ASCAP, and with SESAC, founded in 1930, which operates without a consent decree and is invitation-only.⁷^•¹³ Global Music Rights, founded in 2013, is also invitation-only.⁸ ASCAP and BMI are open to any songwriter; ASCAP charges a one-time $50 writer fee and a one-year renewable membership, while BMI's writer membership is free under a two-year agreement.¹¹

The competitive structure has changed in recent years. BMI became a for-profit corporation in 2024 when it was sold to the private equity firm New Mountain Capital in a $1.7 billion deal, leaving ASCAP describing itself as the only US PRO not owned by private equity or outside investors.¹⁸^•³ Long-term analyses have found ASCAP and BMI pay comparably in aggregate; apparent differences in individual payouts usually reflect the mix of performance types in a writer's catalog rather than the choice of PRO.¹⁸^•¹¹

Recent financial results

Record years. ASCAP reported $1.835 billion in revenue and $1.696 billion available for distributions in 2024, then $1.945 billion in revenue (up 6.0 percent) and $1.759 billion available for distributions (up 3.7 percent) in 2025, both all-time highs.¹⁹^•³ In 2025 domestic revenue from US-licensed performances was $1.471 billion and foreign revenue $474 million, and membership passed 1.1 million with more than 80,000 new members joining.³ Over the ten years of its strategic growth plan (2015–2025), ASCAP reports compound annual growth of 6.7 percent for revenue and 7.3 percent for distributions.³

Leadership during this period has included CEO Elizabeth Matthews and chairman and president Paul Williams, the songwriter behind "Rainbow Connection," who also serves as president of the ASCAP Foundation.³^•⁹

Recognition and foundation work

ASCAP honors its members through awards including the ASCAP Founders Award, given to songwriters and composers who contribute pioneering works; posthumous recipients have included The Notorious B.I.G. (Christopher Wallace) in 2017.²⁰ The ASCAP Foundation, the organization's separate charitable arm, was established in 1975 after the estate of Jack Norworth, lyricist of "Take Me Out to the Ball Game," left a bequest of the song's future licensing payments; it supports young musicians through programs such as the Musical Theatre Fest hosted by composer Stephen Schwartz.⁹

References

Initially written Sep 17, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 15, 2026; Oct 25, 2026