NEW YORK (ASCAP/ www.ascap.com) - The American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP), representing over 190,000 members, and the
Radio Music License Committee (RMLC), representing most of the nearly 12,000 commercial radio stations in the U.S., today announced a new agreement totaling in excess of 1.7 Billion dollars.
This is the largest single licensing deal in the history of American radio.
The settlement, which was approved by Federal District Court Judge
William C. Conner on October 15, 2004, provides stations with the right to perform ASCAP music over the air and also as part of a simultaneous stream of their over-the-air signals on their
Internet web sites. It also provides fee certainty to both the radio industry and ASCAP's members. ASCAP's repertory, the largest in the world, contains more than 7.5 million copyrighted musical works of every style and genre, in addition to works in the repertories of over 60 affiliated foreign performing rights organizations.
The agreement finalizes license fees for the period 2001-2003 and establishes new ASCAP licenses for the period 2004-2009. The negotiated settlement replaces revenue-based license fees with a set payment schedule for the stations that will provide significant guaranteed income to ASCAP composers, songwriters and music publishers. Both sides will also benefit from a simplified and streamlined administration process.
"We are very pleased with this agreement," said Keith Meehan, executive director of the RMLC.
"Separating royalty fees payable from radio station revenues has been a goal of the RMLC for many years. With this agreement we have now accomplished that with both of the major performing rights organizations."
"Over $1.7 Billion dollars, fixed through 2009, indicates the true economic value of our members' music to the radio industry," said ASCAP's SVP, Director of Licensing Vincent Candilora.
"We were pleased to have reached an agreement that establishes significant income increases for our members that they can count on well into the future, and provides the radio industry with the planning information and simplified administration it views as critical for business success.
Effective negotiation avoided the heavy cost of litigation for both sides and resulted in an agreement which can only serve to strengthen the longstanding partnership between America's leading creators of music and their most valuable customers."
About RMLC
The RMLC is an organization comprised of broadcaster volunteers that represents the interests of the radio industry in their dealings with the major US performing rights organizations and on other music licensing matters. The principal objectives of the RMLC are to achieve fair and reasonable music performance licenses for radio stations that reflect the realities of the current and changing state of the radio business and to enable radio stations to control their music costs.
About ASCAP
2004 marks the 90th anniversary of the founding of ASCAP. As the world's largest Performing Rights Organization, ASCAP has over 190,000 composer, lyricist and music publisher members representing all genres of music. ASCAP is committed to protecting the rights of its members by licensing and collecting royalties for the public performance of their copyrighted works, and then distributing these fees to the Society's members based on performances. ASCAP's Board of Directors is made up solely of writers and publishers, elected by the membership every two years.
