Question 1

Why does a royalty statement not show a performance I know aired?

Accepted Answer

A statement lists what a society PAID you. It is not a record of what went out on air. If a performance was never reported to the society, or was reported against the wrong work, there is simply no line for it -- so the money is not disputed, it is invisible. Finding it needs a second source: what actually aired, compared against what settled.

Question 2

Can a royalty statement be checked against airplay?

Accepted Answer

Only for the part of it that carries a performance count. Societies differ: on one real set of statements, 99% of SESAC lines, 87% of BMI lines and 43% of ASCAP lines carried a count. A line with money and no count cannot be compared against an airing at all, and saying what share is checkable is the honest starting point.

Question 3

Is my royalty statement uploaded anywhere?

Accepted Answer

No. The file is read in your browser. Only the extracted rows are stored, and columns that identify a person -- party and member IDs, recipient names, IPI and CAE numbers, tax IDs and addresses -- are removed before anything is written.

Question 4

What currency is a foreign royalty statement in?

Accepted Answer

Often the export does not say, and the society's country does not decide it. JASRAC is Japanese and supplies a US dollar column beside the yen; BMI converts foreign income before paying, so it is still dollars. Guessing from the country is wrong often enough to move a total by tens of percent, so ONTRK asks and marks every converted figure approximate.

Is your music actually registered, or does ASCAP just say it is?