American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers

The American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers ( ASCAP ), headquartered in New York City is the oldest U.S. collecting society for music products.

Task

The ASCAP has the task of protecting the intellectual property of composers, musicians and publishers by public performances of music and movies recorded and controlled, fees feeding and forwards them to the originator. In Germany, GEMA has a similar function.

History

In the early years music was played live exclusively in the radio stations, and the musicians were paid on the spot. With the advent of the record, the musicians and composers were increasingly empty. The station refused to pay for the playing of recorded music. To protect the copyright rights of their members, the ASCAP was founded on February 13, 1914 in New York. The founding members of Irving Berlin, Otto Harbach, Jerome David Kern, Silvio Hein, James Weldon Johnson, Jacob Witmark, John Philip Sousa, Victor Herbert and Gustave Adolph include dungeon. Very quickly their right to demand royalties, been confirmed in court. On January 22, 1917 namely, the Supreme Court ruled that ASCAP had the right to collect from live performances fees.

There was a monopolist who controlled the American music world in no time. Only handpicked composers and lyricists were accepted as members. Whole musical genres such as country music or rhythm and blues were excluded.

In 1944, the ASCAP doubled their claims to the radio station. This then boycotted the organization and instead resorted back to the material, which was founded in 1931 Broadcast Music Incorporated ( BMI). The ASCAP lost its monopoly and was forced to open up to other genres. Many radio stations also merged to form NBC to reduce production costs.

In the competition organization BMI rather unknown artists were initially organized during the ASCAP represented the established stars from the music, film and television industries. After the opening of ASCAP for music makers of all genres, both organizations hardly be distinguished.

Awards

The ASCAP awards on the ASCAP Foundation a variety of awards, such as the ASCAP Foundation Musical Theater Award, the ASCAP Foundation Young Jazz Composers Award, the Deems Taylor Award and the Richard Rodgers Award, and more.