International Royalty Payments Explained

Published: Sun, 04/11/10

The following article is from Ascap.com. This article outlines how ASCAP collects payments from international Performing Rights Organizations and distributes those payments to their members. But whether you belong to ASCAP, BMI, SESAC or a different PRO outside of the USA, the information is relevant as all of the US based PRO's have reciprocal relationships with foreign PRO's and conversely most international PRO's have relationships with the three US based PRO's. I provide a comprehensive list of all the major international PRO's in my program, The A To Z Of Music Licensing (http://www.howtolicenseyourmusic.com/programol)

Understanding International Payments

By Etan Rosenbloom, Membership/Marketing

International Payments

When I pick up the phone to take a general membership call, there's about a 50/50 chance that the question will be about an international matter. The fact is, ASCAP music is truly global music, and the spread of digital technology is only increasing how far your music can travel. According to our most recent Annual Report, 31% of ASCAP's revenue in 2008 came from performances generated outside the United States, a higher rate than either of the previous two years. International performances represent an increasingly significant opportunity for ASCAP members, so it's important to understand how they generate royalties.

When you see performances show up on your quarterly international statements, you'll notice that each one indicates a specific country of origin. ASCAP has reciprocal representation agreements with over 90 performing rights organizations (PROs) around the world. These organizations collect public performance royalties for a specific territory. Sometimes the territory can be a single country, and sometimes a PRO will represent multiple countries. We license the works of their members in the U.S., and they license the works of our members in their territories.

ASCAP distributes international royalties on a quarterly basis. Whenever you get paid for an international performance, it's because a foreign society has collected data about, and royalties generated by, that performance. ASCAP regularly circulates information about our repertory to all the foreign societies, and they do the same for us. How does a foreign society know the details about your works? ASCAP submits information about songs and music in audio-visual programs to CIS-Net, the international performing rights community's on-line database used by societies around the world.

In general, the core function of foreign PROs is to pay out performance royalties, much like ASCAP. However, foreign PROs differ from ASCAP in a few important ways.

Film Music: Foreign PROs collect royalties for film music performed at movie theaters, something that ASCAP and other US performing rights societies cannot for legal reasons. Many ASCAP members that work primarily in the film world get significant income from these performances in foreign theaters.

Performance Types: Foreign PROs differ as to what types of performances fall under their surveys. For example, GEMA (Germany) pays out on most commercials, while at this time, SOCAN (Canada) only pays out on commercials of 61 seconds or longer, and UBC (Brazil) does not pay out on commercials at all.

Live Performances: While ASCAP pays out for live performances on the 200 top grossing domestic tours of each year, many foreign societies are able to collect and distribute on a larger number of live performances. When you perform overseas, let ASCAP know and we'll let the society in question know that we are expecting royalties. ASCAP's International Performance Notification Form lists all the necessary information and can be found on our website at http://www.ascap.com/concert/international-form.html.

Timing/Frequency: While PRS (UK), SOCAN (Canada) and SACM (Mexico) pay quarterly, it generally takes a bit longer to get paid for international performances than domestic performances. Most foreign societies distribute twice a year. A few important societies - GEMA (Germany) and BUMA (The Netherlands) among them - pay once per year. As a result, each one of ASCAP's four annual international distributions will include a different mix of societies.

One last tidbit: until 2009, both foreign PROs and ASCAP would deduct a small percentage of incoming revenue for their operating expenses. Now ASCAP no longer deducts its 3% overhead, which means more money for you.

Now that you're all experts in international performance income, you can get back to writing all that fantastic music! We'll handle the rest.

Member Spotlight! Interview With James Mason Of The Mason Brothers

From time to time I will be interviewing different subscribers of my newsletter who have had success licensing their music. This week I am featuring James Mason of The Mason Brothers whose music has appeared in both the new Beverly Hills 90210 and CBS' Flashpoint.

Aaron Davison: Hi James. Can you start by telling us a little bit about the Mason Brothers, how long you guys have been playing, how you formed, etc...

James Mason: My brother Christian and I started to collaborate around 2003. Prior to that, I had been in other bands in college, and after graduating, the old band members left town. I locked myself up in a room with an 8 track recorder and undertook a "solo" record. Around that time, my brother's musical interests were starting to intersect with mine, so he played on a few of the tracks. We developed what we thought was a unique style with two finger-picked guitars playing in harmony, with soft vocals. The record was released under the artist name "James Mason" and the title was Carnival Sky ( http://itunes.apple.com/us/album/carnival-sky/id319962187). The record has a Nick Drake meets Elliott Smith meets Sparklehorse kind of vibe. We had some success with some nice shows, opening for Magnolia Electric Company and others. Also, we were encouraged by largely positive reviews of the record. At that time, I didn't know anything about licensing songs, and didn't pursue it.

After the Carnival Sky record, we started playing under the name "Mason Brothers" and writing songs together. We had a couple of false starts with our debut, but finally in 2008, we released our debut album "The Sun, the Moon & the Sea (www.itunes.com/masonbrothers). The vibe of this record is sort of Iron & Wine, Nick Drake, Simon & Garfunkel. At this time, I started to learn about licensing, and the great exposure it can give artists. Plus, we built our own studio in my house, and still have a lot of debt to pay off! And of course, licensing songs could be a way for us to pay these debts.

Aaron Davison: You guys recently had one of your songs on an episode of the new Beverly Hills 90210. Can you talk about how you ended up getting that licensing deal and what else you've done licensing wise.

James Mason: Yes, we did have a song from The Sun, the Moon & the Sea on the new 90210 show--the song was "Round and Round." This came about in the strangest of ways. Somehow, the music coordinator for the show found us on myspace and contacted us about using the song. It's funny how these things happen. Just tonight, my cousin sent me a facebook message saying that he just heard our song "Silver Spades" (from the Carnival Sky record) on MTV's show "16 and Pregnant!" Crazy. I have no idea how the song landed there. Probably Pump Audio or some other library placed it there. Or maybe it was you, Aaron J

We've had some good fortune with other songs--"Ghost at the Wheel" is going to be on a movie called Don't Fade Away, along with some other awesome artists like Ryan Adams and Alexi Murdoch. That came about from a licensing company that represents us. Also, we had a couple of songs on the PBS series Road Trip Nation. A couple of custom jobs for the History Channel. Also, a CBS show called Flashpoint.

Aaron Davison: What are your long term goals with the Mason Brothers? Where do you hope to be 5 years from now?

James Mason: Great question. It would be great to earn a living from music. We have a huge backlog of songs, but now we have a studio to record them. Definitely want to put out at least two records this year. We've never shopped our music to labels, but there are a handful of contacts we have in that area. I would be curious to see what that could provide, so we will look into that with our next release. Definitely going to keep working with film and TV. I love the marriage of sound with motion picture. Even if it's a silly show, I still get a kick out of it. Speaking of which, I forgot--one of our songs was used in a Huggies commercial. Unreal.

Aaron Davison: Any recent news you'd like to discuss regarding the Mason Brothers? What are you up to currently?

James Mason: We are about to release our second record, and we are very excited to share it with our friends and fans. This record showcases our "full band" sound. The vibe is sort of like Nick Drake meets Pink Floyd meets Wilco. More rock oriented stuff, a bit like My Morning Jacket or Band of Horses. Hopefully, it will be out this summer.

Aaron Davison: If someone would like to learn more about your music, where can they go to do that?

James Mason: If anyone is interested in hearing our songs you can find us at:

www.masonbrothersmusic.com

www.myspace.com/masonbrothers

www.facebook.com/masonbrothersmusic

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