PROs

What a PRO actually licenses

A performing rights organization collects money when a composition is performed in public: on the radio, on television, in a venue, at a live show, and in many streamed or broadcast uses. That money is for the song, not for the sound recording. The recording has its own owners and its own payees.

ASCAP’s help center says an ASCAP license does not cover recording a song on a CD or inside a film, video, or TV program. Those are mechanical and synchronization rights, and ASCAP says they are licensed by the writers or publishers. A PRO affiliation is necessary for a lot of performance income. It does not clear a sync, a sample, or a master.

The U.S. societies are not interchangeable

ASCAP and BMI both take applications from songwriters. BMI’s creators page describes affiliation as fast and free. ASCAP’s help center, as we read it on 15 October 2026, says the writer application fee is suspended, and that a new writer who also sets up a publisher membership at the same time can be in a position to collect both shares at no application cost. The same page says publishers who are not joining as writers at the same time pay a $50 application fee. Confirm those terms on ASCAP’s site before you pay anyone.

SESAC’s own FAQ says SESAC is invitation-only and does not accept unsolicited submissions. The route it describes is to have a representative such as a lawyer, manager, or agent make contact.

Global Music Rights, in a filing in the U.S. Copyright Office’s 2025 performing-rights inquiry, described itself as an invitation-only PRO that selectively represents songwriters and composers. That is GMR’s description of its own model in that filing, not a promise about how to get invited. Start at GMR’s site if you are a music user who needs a license, or if you have been approached as a writer.

The MLC lists AllTrack alongside ASCAP, BMI, GMR, and SESAC as a U.S. organization songwriters still need for public performance royalties. AllTrack’s own homepage says it collects performance, mechanical, and neighboring rights and invites creators to apply. Those are different descriptions. Read AllTrack’s agreement rather than assuming it works like ASCAP.

A license with one society does not cover another society’s repertoire. SESAC says this directly about ASCAP and BMI, and GMR’s FAQ says the same about ASCAP, BMI, and SESAC.

How ASCAP wants a song registered

ASCAP says the royalties it pays for a performance are divided evenly between writers and publishers. When you register a work, all of the writer splits add up to 50%, and all of the publisher splits add up to 50%. That is ASCAP’s registration math. It is not a rule that two co-writers must own the song equally. Two writers can split the writer half however they agreed, and the publisher half follows who actually administers publishing.

If you want the publisher half yourself, ASCAP says you need a publishing company with ASCAP. If a co-writer belongs to a different PRO, ASCAP still needs the work registered on its side so it can track your share. Register the same title, the same people, and the same percentages everywhere you register the song.

Outside the United States

Most writers affiliate with one society where they live, then ask that society how foreign performances get home. Do not join every society you can find. Read the agreement, especially if a publisher or an administrator already has the right to collect in some countries.

PRS for Music, in the United Kingdom, says it collects and pays royalties when a member’s music is played in public, broadcast, downloaded, streamed, or performed live, in the UK and around the world. SOCAN, in Canada, offers separate signups for performing rights and reproduction rights, and says it licenses music and collects and distributes royalties in Canada and abroad.

Other home societies to look up, on their own sites, include GEMA in Germany, SACEM in France, APRA AMCOS in Australia and New Zealand, and JASRAC in Japan. This page does not restate their fees or their membership rules.