Do i need both ascap and bmi licenses

You also need to consider smaller PROs that may have the rights to some of the music for business you would like to play. But some publishers claim that they do not make enough money in their relationships, and that disquiet has allowed a few new companies to spring up.

This group was formed in , according to The New York Times. It represents songwriters, including members of big bands like:. According to Digital Music News , this organization represented a little more than 28, individual rights holders during the first half of But those numbers rise each year, the article says, and the payouts increase as well.

This is a Canadian PRO and one of the more important ones. According to the organization's website , a key part of this group's mission is to license businesses to use music, and the organization boasts about conducting "extensive outreach" to businesses.

If the catalogue is small, you won't have to worry about difficulties with memorization. You will probably learn quickly just how many songs and artists are safe for you to play.

But the catalogue could be limiting. Working with a PRO can be confusing, time-consuming, and expensive. To get full protection for the music you want to play, you might need to spend hours on negotiations and compliance.

And even then, there are times when you won't be protected. The costs, such as the BMI music license cost, can also add up as you include more and more of these PROs and blanket licenses.

These are all great options if you have the time to research, in detail, each artist or song to ensure you are not violating intellectual property laws. Then, you can find the songs you love the most and create playlists for your business. If you enjoy this type of deep research, you can find some excellent options; however, few business owners are able to focus on this instead of other business needs.

Some businesses have spotted the need for trendy, familiar, or energizing music licensed only with PROs, and they have developed services that combine the power of playlists with the legal compliance of contracts. Signing up with them means accessing music that has been made for your business without worrying about whether the songs you play are legal for you to play. One of the oldest companies offering this type of service is Mood Media.

This organization hires musicologists to design music programs, so they claim their curated programs offer a better mix of songs without much customization on the part of business owners.

You can even talk with a musicologist and ask for a playlist that meets the needs of your specific business based on your business objectives. The songs are delivered via an app, giving you control over the selection and pacing. SiriusXM was once known for music that played in cars across the country.

Now, the company offers a Music for Business program with 30 channels made for business. There is no customization allowed for these channels, as they run from a satellite. By: Marshall Brain Updated: Feb 17, If you own a radio station or a restaurant and you want to broadcast or play music, what you need are public performance rights -- the right to play music that the general public will hear in one way or another.

Obviously, if you own a radio station playing or songs every day, you would go insane if you had to obtain public performance writes from every label and publisher. Each one handles a catalog of about 4,, songs. A blanket license lets the station play anything it likes throughout the year.

Any establishment that wants to play music that will be heard by the general public needs a license as well. If you go to the Forms section of the BMI Web site, you can find a list of dozens of forms to cover every different type of establishment that you can imagine. Let's consider this example -- a skating rink that wants to play music for its skating patrons needs to fill out this form. The schedule of fees is right on the form. The money that PROs bring in from these licenses is distributed to the artists in accordance with intellectual property law.

This helps artists protect their interests and make a living for their work. Not all musical artists are signed on with a PRO, but many are. Musicians, songwriters, composers, and other music performers or managers are professionals, and they are paid for their work. A performing rights organization PRO helps music business professionals manage the rights and licensing of their work, so they can get consistent income from radio stations, television commercials, or film or stage performances that use it.

These payments are called a performance royalty. PROs collect performance royalties and distribute them to both songwriters and publishers. Royalties are collected by PROs, and this money is organized on cue sheets so it can be distributed evenly. A cue sheet is the name of a document that outlines any songs used, when they were used, how much of the songs were used, and who used them. All this information helps credit the artist. They are a nonprofit organization with one of the most comprehensive available catalogues.

They boast more than 17 million musical works from over 1. The company was founded in to protect the public and recorded performances of artists in new musical genres like jazz, blues, and country.

BMI still proudly protects new music artists and styles to this day. You pay to access 17 million musical works in a catalogue that grows all the time. As a licensing organization with a massive music catalogue, BMI works hard to bridge the gap between companies that need music and the musicians who produce popular or appealing songs.

BMI has services geared toward a range of businesses. Although their focus is on the U. They also focus on how music is used on new technologies, from phones and tablets to games and streaming.

Like other PROs, ASCAP collects membership fees from businesses that want access to their large catalogue and distributes this money back to member artists as royalties. The organization collects more money for royalties for their artists, and they collect more international royalties than the other PROs.

Your membership will self-renew if you do not terminate it, but the organization offers a lot of information on how payments are distributed and your payment is calculated. The company was founded in , and the SESAC catalogue has remained small, with 30, members and about 1 million songs. This may indicate that they spend less money improving their services and the music industry for their members. This organization goes only by its acronym since it stopped using the full name in