How to read your ASCAP royalty statement
By Marc Aaron Jacobs · Updated
An ASCAP statement is two separate exports: domestic and international. In the domestic file, each line is one work on one program, with Work Title and Work ID for the cue, Program Name for the episode, Number of Plays for how many performances the line pays, and Dollars for what it paid.
The column that confuses most composers is Network Service. On background music, which is most of a TV composer's ASCAP income, it is almost always blank. The show is named; the channel is not. On one real ASCAP export, the lines naming a source were 0.06% of the performances.
Where to download it
Sign in to ASCAP Member Access, open Earnings, then Statements. Pick the domestic or international distribution and download it as CSV. It arrives as a .zip: unzip it and use the CSV inside.
Domestic and international are separate statements. Download both, or you are looking at only part of what ASCAP paid you.
The domestic statement, column by column
| Column | What it means |
|---|---|
| Work Title | The cue, as registered. |
| Work ID | ASCAP's number for the work. Use it, not the title, to find a cue: some titles carry more than one work ID. |
| Program Name | The episode title, not the series. The series is in Series or Film/Attraction. |
| Network Service | The channel. Blank on nearly all background music. |
| Number of Plays | How many performances the line pays. One line can stand for many airings. |
| Performance Type (Usage) | How the music was used, for example background or theme. |
| Duration | How long the cue ran. |
| Dollars | What the line paid you, in US dollars. |
| DistributionYear, Distribution Quarter | When ASCAP paid, not when the music aired. |
| Territory | Where the performance happened. |
The file also carries columns that identify you (Party ID, Party Name, Statement Recipient). ONTRK removes those before anything is stored.
The international statement
Foreign income is a different file with different columns. Country Name is where it was earned, Licensor is the foreign society that collected it (PRS, SACEM, GEMA and so on), Series Name is the show, and $ Amount is what you were paid.
Distribution Date is when ASCAP paid you, which can be years after the airing. The airing date is Performance Start Date.
There is no performance count. Overseas societies send ASCAP the money without the list of performances behind it, so international lines can be totaled and sorted but not checked airing by airing.
What can be checked, and what cannot
Only a line with a performance count can be compared against airings. On one real set of statements, 43% of ASCAP lines carried a count, against 87% for BMI and 99% for SESAC. Knowing that share before you start tells you how much of the statement any check can reach.
ASCAP also pays from its own survey of what aired. If you find an airing that was never paid, ASCAP will ask which cue sheet it is on. See how to ask ASCAP about a missing royalty.
Read it in one minute
Drop the file into the free statement reader and it is recognized as ASCAP domestic or ASCAP international automatically. It runs in your browser, nothing is uploaded, and no account is needed.
Common questions
Why is the Network Service column blank on my ASCAP statement?
ASCAP leaves the channel blank on most background music, which is most TV composer income. The program is usually named in Program Name, so sort by show instead of by channel.
What is Number of Plays on an ASCAP statement?
The number of performances that line pays for. One line can cover many airings of the same cue on the same program.
Is the distribution quarter when my music aired?
No. DistributionYear and Distribution Quarter say when ASCAP paid. On the international statement, the airing date is Performance Start Date.
Why does ASCAP send two statements?
Domestic and international income are distributed separately and exported as separate files with different columns. Download both.
Related
- How to read your BMI royalty statement: what each column means, and why titles stop at 30 characters.
- Is my music registered at ASCAP?: find the works that are holding money right now.
- How to ask ASCAP, BMI or SESAC about a missing royalty: what to include, and why each society needs a different letter.
- Why didn't I get paid for my TV placement?: the five reasons an airing goes unpaid, and how to tell which one it is.
Who makes this
ONTRK is built by Marc Aaron Jacobs, a composer who runs the libraries Tonal Chaos and Tonal Chaos Trailers, and who built DropCue. ONTRK started as the thing he wrote to read his own ASCAP statements. Questions go to hello@ontrk.app and reach him directly.
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