ASCAP vs BMI: Which PRO Should a Songwriter Join?

Sooner or later, every songwriter who gets a song out into the world runs into the same question. Somebody asks, “Are you ASCAP or BMI?” And if you don’t know what that means yet, it can feel like everybody else got a rulebook you never saw.

You don’t need a rulebook. You need to know what these companies do, what they don’t do, and how to pick one without losing a dollar you’ve already earned.

ASCAP and BMI are the two performing rights organizations (PROs) most songwriters in the United States can join. They collect money when your song is performed in public and pay it to the people who wrote and published it. That’s the job. They don’t find you a cut, they don’t put your song on the radio, and they don’t collect every kind of royalty a song can earn.

So the choice between them matters, but probably not as much as you’ve been told. Joining one, registering your songs right, and keeping good records matters a lot more than which logo is on your statement.

Let’s walk through it.

This guide is general information about ASCAP’s and BMI’s public rules and help pages as of November 12, 2026. It isn’t legal or financial advice for your situation. Both organizations change their rules and fees from time to time, so read the current pages and your agreement before you sign anything.

What a PRO actually does for a songwriter

When a radio station plays a song, a restaurant has music going over the speakers, a venue hosts a concert, or a TV show uses music, that’s a public performance of the song. Businesses that perform music in public pay license fees to the PROs. The PROs track or estimate what got performed and pay royalties to the writers and publishers of those songs.

BMI describes its job this way in its own FAQ: it negotiates music license agreements and distributes the fees it generates as royalties to its affiliated writers and publishers when their songs are performed in public. It also says plainly that a public performance can be live or recorded, on radio, television, or the internet, in live music venues and clubs, and in other public places.

Now here’s what a PRO doesn’t do, and this is where a lot of writers get confused.

ASCAP’s help page says it ONLY distributes public performance royalties, not royalties associated with record sales. BMI’s FAQ says joining BMI won’t get you a record deal, won’t get you signed to a label or a publishing deal, and can’t get your songs on the radio.

So if you’ve been holding off on joining a PRO because you thought it was a big career step, it isn’t. And if you joined one expecting it to open doors, it won’t. It’s a collection system. A good one, and one you need, but a collection system.

If you want the bigger picture of how a song earns money (mechanical royalties, performance royalties and sync fees), we laid that out in How Much Money Do You Make If Someone Records Your Song?. This article stays on the performance side.

The four U.S. PROs, and why it usually comes down to two

There are four performing rights organizations in the U.S. that songwriters tend to hear about.

• ASCAP (the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers). ASCAP says it was the first PRO in the U.S., founded in 1914, and that it’s the only one operating on a not-for-profit basis. It also says its Board is elected by, and from, its membership every two years.
• BMI (Broadcast Music, Inc.). BMI says that in 1939 it created an open-door policy and became the only performing rights organization to welcome and represent the creators of blues, jazz, country, and American roots music. Today BMI says it represents more than 25 million musical works.
• SESAC. SESAC’s own site says it’s an invitation-only company, that the best route in is to have a representative such as a lawyer, manager or agent contact them for you, and that it doesn’t accept unsolicited submissions.
• Global Music Rights (GMR). GMR says it was founded in 2013 by Irving Azoff and serves a select, invitation-only client base.

So unless you’ve been invited somewhere, your real choice as a songwriter is ASCAP or BMI. Both are open to writers who meet their basic eligibility rules.

For those of us who grew up on Southern Gospel and Bluegrass, it’s nice to see BMI make a point of its history with country and roots music. But don’t pick a PRO based on a history page. Pick it based on how it pays you and how it fits the people you write with.

You can only be in one at a time

This is the first rule to get straight.

BMI’s licensing FAQ explains that each songwriter or composer may belong to only one performing rights organization at any given time. That’s why businesses license with more than one PRO. Each PRO licenses its own repertoire of music, so a restaurant with only an ASCAP license isn’t covered for BMI songs.

That doesn’t mean your co-writers have to join the same one you do. A song can have one writer at ASCAP and another at BMI. ASCAP’s help page covers this directly: if your co-writer belongs to a different PRO, you’ll also need to register the work with ASCAP before ASCAP can track it for you.

So each of you joins the PRO you choose, and each of you makes sure the song is registered with your own PRO. If you assume your co-writer took care of it, you might find out a year from now that nobody registered your share.

Joining is free for writers at both

This used to be a real difference. Right now it mostly isn’t.

BMI. BMI’s FAQ says joining as a songwriter or composer is free, with no fees or annual dues of any kind for songwriters and composers. It also says registering your songs with BMI is free.

ASCAP. ASCAP’s help page says joining is free for all new ASCAP writer members, and if you join as both a writer and a publisher at the same time, ASCAP waives both application fees. If you join only as a publisher, ASCAP lists a one-time, non-refundable $50 application processing fee. ASCAP describes the fee suspension as temporary, beginning for new members who joined on February 13, 2023 or later, so check the current page on the day you apply.

The publisher side is where the money is different, and that leads to the biggest practical difference between the two.

The publisher share: the difference that actually affects your check

When a PRO pays for a performance, the money is split into two halves. Half goes to the writers. Half goes to the publishers.

ASCAP’s help page says it plainly: when ASCAP distributes royalties for a performance, 50% goes to the writer or writers and 50% to the publisher or publishers. When you register a song at ASCAP, all the writer splits add up to 50% and all the publisher splits add up to 50%, for a total of 100%.

BMI also says one half is designated for the songwriters and the other half for the publishers.

Most of the songwriters we hear from don’t have a publisher. They wrote the song, they own the song, and nobody else is involved. So what happens to that publisher half?

This is where ASCAP and BMI handle things differently.

How BMI handles it

BMI’s FAQ says if you’re just getting started, you won’t need to set up a publishing company. It says creating one won’t mean you receive more royalties, and that you aren’t leaving royalties on the table. If you don’t own a publishing company and there are no publisher shares on the work, BMI shows “Manuscript” as a publishing placeholder, which means the writer and publisher shares are flowing directly to the writers.

BMI’s FAQ on self-published works says the same thing a different way: at BMI, you don’t have to affiliate a publishing entity to receive publishing shares, because BMI pays all royalties, writer and publisher, to the composer on any self-published works.

If you want your writer and publisher money paid separately anyway, BMI lets you affiliate your own publishing company. BMI lists a one-time fee of $175 for an individual publisher, $250 for a corporation or LLC, and $500 for a partnership. It says that fee isn’t refundable and isn’t taken out of future earnings.

How ASCAP handles it

ASCAP takes a different approach. Its help page says that if you want to collect your publisher’s share, you’ll need to have a publishing company with ASCAP. ASCAP also says a writer who hasn’t assigned his or her publishing rights to someone else is eligible for a publisher membership, and that a publisher membership allows you to collect the publisher share of a song’s performance royalties.

That’s why the timing of your application matters at ASCAP. If you join as a writer and a publisher at the same time, ASCAP waives both fees. If you join only as a writer now and come back later for the publisher membership, ASCAP’s page says that’s when the $50 fee applies, at least under its current rules.

So the practical version looks like this:

• At BMI, a self-published writer can be paid both halves without setting up a publishing company.
• At ASCAP, a self-published writer collects the publisher half through an ASCAP publisher membership, and joining as writer and publisher at the same time currently costs nothing.

Neither one is a trap. You just have to know which path you’re on so that the publisher half of your money has somewhere to go.

If you already have a publisher, none of this is your job. Your publisher is usually the one registering the songs and collecting that half. BMI’s FAQ notes that typically a publisher will register songs for songwriters and composers. Just ask your publisher which PRO it’s affiliated with and how it registers your songs, so you know where both halves are going.

How long you’re committed

This is the part people skip, and it’s the part that can frustrate you later if you change your mind.

BMI. BMI says the initial term of its current standard writer agreement is two years, and after that it automatically renews for additional two-year terms unless you cancel under the terms of your agreement. To leave, BMI says in most cases your notice must be signed and sent postmarked not more than six months or less than three months before the end of your current term. It has to go by registered, certified or Express mail, or another method where the courier records the date it was sent. BMI says notice by email isn’t accepted. BMI’s publisher agreements have a longer initial term, five years.

ASCAP. ASCAP’s rules let a member resign every two years, effective the first day after the calendar quarter in which the two-year anniversary of the member’s election falls. Resignation requests have to be submitted no more than six months and no less than three months before that effective date. ASCAP’s resignation help page says notice is submitted through its Member Access portal, and that if you don’t see the resignation button, your notification window isn’t open yet. ASCAP’s own example in its rules is a member elected on February 1, 2025, who can first give notice between October 1 and December 31, 2026, with the resignation taking effect April 1, 2027.

So both organizations work on two-year windows for writers. Neither is a month-to-month thing you can cancel on a whim. Write down the date you join and the window when you could leave, and keep a copy of your agreement.

Leaving also doesn’t make your earlier royalties disappear. BMI’s agreement page says it keeps paying your share of royalties for licensed performances that happened before your agreement ended, on its normal distribution schedule. But there are details about what happens to songs after you leave, especially songs where you were collecting both shares yourself, so read the page for the PRO you’re in before you move.

What you need to join

Neither application is complicated, but have a few things ready.

At ASCAP, you can join as a writer if you’ve written or co-written music or lyrics for at least one musical work that’s available to the public. ASCAP gives examples like a song you perform live, a CD you sell at your concerts, a song on a streaming service or in a YouTube video, a digital download, or sheet music. ASCAP’s applications are online (except for minors), and every applicant has to provide a government-issued ID and do a “liveness check,” where a photo of your face is taken during the application to verify you’re a real person. If you’re in a group, ASCAP says each member who writes has to complete a separate writer application.

At BMI, the FAQ says that if you’ve written at least one musical composition, alone or with others, and it’s currently being performed or likely to be performed soon, you should join. BMI’s writers can join online.

Both organizations will ask for personal and tax information, because they’re paying you money. ASCAP’s page reminds applicants to use caution on a shared device because of the sensitive data involved. Apply from your own computer or phone, on the organization’s real website, and never pay a third party who says it can “get you into” ASCAP or BMI.

On that note, ASCAP’s rules say ASCAP deplores the practice of soliciting songs from amateur songwriters on the condition that they pay money in the hope of having their works published. If somebody asks you to pay to be “published,” be careful.

Registering your songs is the part that gets you paid

Joining a PRO doesn’t automatically mean your songs are in its system. You have to register them.

BMI’s FAQ is direct about it: if you don’t register your songs, you won’t get paid when they’re played. BMI registration is done in its Online Services account under Works Registration, where you add the work info, the publishers and writers, and the artists and recordings. BMI says most online registrations show up in your catalog within 24 hours, and some can take up to seven business days. BMI also says it doesn’t need an audio file or lyrics. It relies on the information you provide, such as title, writer and artist.

ASCAP’s help page says to register a work once it has been fully created, through its Online Work Registration system in Member Access. ASCAP asks newly elected members to wait five business days after their election confirmation before registering works for the first time. ASCAP has a Quick Registration option for simpler songs (typically non-classical music without samples or public domain elements, not written for film or TV) and a Guided Registration for more complex ones.

A few habits will save you a lot of trouble:

• Register a song as soon as it’s recorded, released, or likely to be performed. Don’t wait for a check that never comes.
• Use each writer’s full legal name and their PRO and IPI number if you have them. ASCAP’s mobile app even lets you share your IPI card with collaborators so you get added properly to new registrations.
• Make sure the splits match what you all agreed to. Get that agreement in writing before the song goes out. Our copyright guide has a section on split sheets, and The Pros and Cons of Co-writing covers the people side of it.
• Check your co-writers’ registrations. ASCAP says if a co-writer already registered the work with ASCAP, you don’t need to register it again, but it’s a good idea to check that they did it right.
• Add the recording information when a song gets cut. If an artist records your song, update the registration with the artist and recording so the PRO can match performances to it.

And don’t list an AI tool as a writer. BMI’s AI guidance says only humans can be authors or writers, and that affiliates can’t register an AI company, or the owner or creator of the AI tool, as a writer. If you used AI anywhere in your process, our Suno release guide walks through how to keep your records accurate.

Live shows and church performances

Lots of the writers we work with sing their own songs, at churches, festivals, fairs and concerts. Both PROs have programs that pay for some live performances when you report them.

BMI Live lets performing songwriters submit setlists for eligible performances and get paid quarterly, and it requires direct deposit. ASCAP has a similar program called ASCAP OnStage, which ASCAP says is available to writer members through Member Access, also with direct deposit set up.

Gospel writers, read the fine print on this one. BMI’s FAQ lists performances during religious services as not eligible for BMI Live. It notes that performances at church events outside normal church service times are eligible. It also lists wedding receptions, private house concerts, and state or county fairs as not eligible, among others. ASCAP publishes its own rules for OnStage, so check them if you’re with ASCAP.

So if you’re singing your songs on the road, report your eligible dates. It’s money that’s yours and it won’t show up unless you tell them about the performance.

Performance royalties aren’t the only money

This is the last big mistake to avoid. A PRO covers public performance royalties. It doesn’t cover the mechanical royalties your song earns when it’s streamed on demand or downloaded in the U.S.

That money goes through a different organization. The Mechanical Licensing Collective (The MLC) says it administers blanket mechanical licenses for eligible streaming and download services in the United States and pays self-administered songwriters, publishers and administrators. The MLC says anyone entitled to receive digital audio mechanical royalties in the U.S. should become a member, and that connecting with The MLC is free.

If you have a publisher or a publishing administrator, they may be handling The MLC for you. If you’re self-published, that’s probably on you. Joining ASCAP or BMI doesn’t take care of it.

So which one should you join?

Here’s a plain way to think about it.

If you’re self-published and you want the simplest setup, BMI’s approach of paying both shares to the writer without a publishing company is easy to understand.

If you like ASCAP’s structure, its member-elected board, or its not-for-profit basis, join ASCAP as a writer and a publisher at the same time so the publisher half has somewhere to go and both fees are waived.

If your regular co-writers or your publisher are all at one PRO, it can make your paperwork simpler to be at the same one. It’s not required, but it’s one less thing to coordinate.

If you’re already a member of one, you don’t need to switch because of an article. Both are free for writers to join, both pay performance royalties, and both have two-year windows for leaving. Switching has its own paperwork and timing, so only do it for a reason you can name.

Either way, you can’t collect performance royalties without a PRO, and a PRO can’t pay you for a song it doesn’t know about. Join one, register every song, and keep a copy of every split sheet and agreement.

When the song is ready to be heard

Getting registered is how you get paid when your song is played. Getting the song played starts with people actually hearing it. An artist or a publisher has to hear the song the way it’s meant to sound before they’ll ever record it, and that’s what a good demo does.

At Buy Demo Tracks, we turn AI demos into real demos, recorded from scratch by session singers and players, with no AI audio in the finished recording. Send us your AI sketch as a reference, or a worktape or voice memo if you never used AI at all. You own the recording, and you can see our packages and current pricing on the order page.

If you’re working from an AI demo and getting ready to pitch, you can also get our free AI Demo Industry-Ready checklist, along with emails about demos and pitching.

Keep writing. Get the songs registered. And get them in front of people.

Sources

• ASCAP, My ASCAP Membership (Help Center), About ASCAP, Join ASCAP for Free, Resigning from ASCAP, and Governing Documents (Compendium of ASCAP Rules and Regulations, effective September 19, 2025, sections 1.9.3 and 1.11).
• BMI, Creators FAQ, Affiliation Agreement Info, Music Licensing FAQs, and BMI and AI: What Music Creators Need to Know.
• SESAC, home page and FAQ.
• Global Music Rights, About.
• The Mechanical Licensing Collective, home page.