ASCAP, BMI, and SOCAN Unify Publisher Registration as MusicMark

By Kira Grunenberg

This is no April Fool’s joke. Today marks the first full day of activity for newly launched collaborative endeavor, MusicMark. But what is MusicMark and why would someone possibly think of its existence as a prank?

It might have something to do with the idea that multiple performing rights organizations (PROs) are teaming up as one entity. While it is true that PROs have common goals and business objectives in support of the respective songwriters, artists and publishers they collectively represent, the individual working structure and overall framework for each PRO is slightly different. This is what allows for a healthy amount of variety and choice to best suit every person’s needs within the music industry.

MusicMark is nothing to be feared, nor is it something that will merge every PRO under a single umbrella of procedures and benefits. Publisher members of ASCAP, BMI, and SOCAN, the three current collaborators that comprise MusicMark, will retain their identities as members of their chosen groups. The crux of benefits is in the pooling of knowledge, staff, and effective work methods, as well as the massive simplification of Common Work Registration (CWR) within the three PROs down to a single process.

As stated in the starter document uploaded to MusicMark’s website, the goal of this new project is to:

“…make the works registration process more efficient and create a unified copyright picture in North America for the works we represent.The first phase of this collaboration will enable publishers to submit/receive files to/from one FTP [file transfer protocol] site (rather than three) and to receive one common first acknowledgment (as opposed to one from each PRO).”

It is a bit surprising to see a PRO like SOCAN in this announcement, rather than SESAC, the PRO so often attached with mention of ASCAP and BMI. However, the volume of works and creators to be supported is quite notable, as the separate databases of these three will bring together a massive number of publishers and songwriters. Furthermore, there is the possibility of other organizations  integrating sometime in the future. Right now, the organizations are aiming for an overall boost in data accuracy for their copyrighted works and, for any errors that do occur, a quicker resolution thereof, through the use of a uniform data registry. The forefront of this whole collaboration will positively affect PRO members with a trimming of the complex paper trail, and can be tested out as soon as their next work is ready for registration.

As explained on MusicMark’s website,

“Publishers will be able to submit a single registration file simultaneously to all three performing rights organizations (PROs), even if the work was co-written by members of different societies. Each PRO will then integrate the registration data into its respective repertory of works.”

 Given the number of artists who are also songwriters, and the number of artists who collaborate with other artists who are also songwriters, the appropriate naming and featuring jargon for writing credit can be severely confusing — to say nothing of the legal navigations when starting the registration for a co-write involving two, three or even more people. Collaboration has been the “it” strategy for some time now in songs and business missions, and that spirit has translated over to a sector of the music business that could seriously benefit from a de-tangling of red tape. What impact and influence it may or may not have on other PROs and related services (song tracking, audio fingerprinting) will be a question worth following closely in the next few months as MusicMark makes its mark on the business.

You can read more about MusicMark’s initial process for CWR registration here.

Kira is an old school music nerd with a love for all things creative; always searching for music’s common ground. She graduated with an M.A. in Performing Arts Administration from New York University. Drop her a tweet @shadowmelody1.

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