How to ask ASCAP, BMI or SESAC about a missing royalty
By Marc Aaron Jacobs · Updated
Send it to your society, with the society's own work number for the cue, the title, the show, the channel, the air dates and the statement period you expected it on. A society cannot look anything up without the work number, so that comes first.
Then frame it the way that society works, because they do not all handle an inquiry the same way. SESAC accepts detection data and pays on it. BMI will look into it. ASCAP pays from its own survey and will ask which cue sheet the performance is on, so an ASCAP inquiry asks what they have on file rather than presenting a figure.
Before you send anything
- •Make sure the period has settled. If the statement covering the air date has not arrived, the airing is not unpaid yet, it is pending. An inquiry sent early gets the answer "wait".
- •Make sure it is not paid somewhere else on the statement. Long titles are cut short on statements, and the same cue can be paid under a slightly different title or through a different publisher. Search by work number, not by title.
- •Check the registration. If the work has an unidentified party or shares that do not total 100%, fix that first. The inquiry will come back to it anyway.
What to include
| Field | Why it matters |
|---|---|
| Work number | The society's own ID for the cue. Nothing can be looked up without it. |
| Title | As registered, in full. |
| Show and episode | What the cue sheet is filed against. |
| Channel | Where it aired. |
| Air dates | Each airing, so it can be checked against what the society holds. |
| Statement period | The distribution you expected it on. |
| Your member number | So it reaches your account. |
Any amount you put on it is an estimate, and it should say so. The useful figure is what the same statement paid for comparable airings. It supports a question, it is not an invoice.
ASCAP, BMI and SESAC, side by side
| Society | How to frame it |
|---|---|
| SESAC | Accepts detection data and pays on it. Attach the airings. |
| BMI | Will look into it. Give them the airings and the period. |
| ASCAP | Pays from its own survey. Ask which cue sheet it has on file for the episode, rather than presenting a detection and a number. |
Sending ASCAP a demand built on third-party detection is a quick way to be dismissed. Ask what they have; do not tell them what they owe.
Why it goes to the society and not the library
Performance royalties are paid by your society. The library or publisher you placed the cue through is not the party that missed the payment, and they are usually the people who give you your next placement. Keep the inquiry with the society.
How ONTRK builds it
When ONTRK finds an airing the statement for its period never paid, it builds the inquiry for you: a letter framed for that society, plus a CSV schedule of the airings with the work numbers attached. Airings still waiting on a distribution are left out automatically, so nothing goes out early.
Common questions
What is a royalty inquiry?
A request to your performing rights society asking about a performance it did not pay, with enough detail (work number, show, channel, air dates) for the society to look it up.
Does ASCAP accept detection data as proof of a performance?
ASCAP pays from its own survey and will ask which cue sheet a performance is on. An ASCAP inquiry works best as a question about what they have on file, not a claim built on third-party detection.
Does SESAC pay on detection data?
SESAC accepts detection data and pays on it, which makes it the most direct of the three to raise a detected airing with.
Related
- 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.
- What is a cue sheet, and how does a missing one cost you?: the document that decides whether an airing can be paid to you at all.
- Royalty reconciliation: what aired against what paid: how airings are matched to the statement that settles them.
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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