ASCAP delivered a record-breaking $1.737 billion in revenue in the 2023 calendar year with $1.592 billion available for royalty distributions to its members—the highest revenue and royalty distributions reported by any U.S. performing rights organization (PRO), and an increase of $204 million or 14.7 percent over the prior year.

The revenues represent an increase of $215 million or 14.1 percent over 2022. ASCAP increased the value and monetization of its members’ music with domestic revenue from U.S.-licensed performances surpassing $1.327 billion, which is an increase of $149 million or 12.6 percent over the prior year. In 2023, audio streaming revenue rose 21 percent, general licensing revenue rose 23 percent, radio revenue rose 10 percent and audio-visual revenue rose three percent. Total foreign revenues for performances outside the U.S. were $410 million, up $66 million or 19.3 percent over the prior year.

Since the launch of ASCAP’s strategic growth plan in 2015, its compound annual growth rate (CAGR) for Total Revenue through 2023 has increased to seven percent, and the CAGR for Total Distributions over the same time period rose to eight percent.

Total funds available for domestic distributions of ASCAP U.S.-licensed and administered performances were $1.217 billion, an increase of $169 million or 16.1 percent, based solely on U.S. performances of works by ASCAP-licensed songwriter, composer and publisher members. Of that total, $53 million was distributed through Songwize, ASCAP’s royalty administration service provided to members who directly license their works, up 16.8 percent over 2022.

ASCAP represents and aggregates over 19 million copyrights which includes music from Beyoncé, Billy Joel, Cardi B, Dua Lipa, Garth Brooks, Jay-Z, Katy Perry, Lil Baby, Lin-Manuel Miranda, Mariah Carey, Olivia Rodrigo, Paul McCartney, Stevie Wonder, Usher and more.

ASCAP is the only PRO operating on a not-for-profit basis, and does not charge a commission or take a profit and instead, pursuant to its governance and operating principles, must deduct all expenses subject to a reasonable reserve and then distribute all remaining dollars as royalty distributions to its members.

ASCAP has no debt, no shareholders, no private owners and no private equity investors, meaning its music creator and publisher members are the sole beneficiaries of ASCAP’s financial success. A democratically elected Board of Directors composed of music publishers and music creators sets the royalty distribution rules and cost allocations based on follow-the-dollar principles. It is the only U.S. PRO that makes those distribution rules publicly available on its website providing transparency to its membership.

“We are delivering industry-leading technical innovation, legislative advocacy and revenue growth that solely benefits our members, not outside investors or shareholders,” says ASCAP CEO Elizabeth Matthews. “As we like to say, private equity never wrote an iconic love song which is why we fight purely for songwriters, composers and publishers, not for those who use creators and their works of art for their own profits or to secure their own debt. ASCAP differs from others because our mission and purpose is clear and unique.”

“ASCAP’s mission and not-for-profit business model are more important now than ever before, as artificial intelligence (AI) transforms the music landscape, and the need for legislative advocacy to protect creators in D.C. has never been more important,” says ASCAP Chairman of the Board & President Paul Williams. “ASCAP will always be a champion for the humans who create music and demand transparency and fair payment from those who exploit our work. ASCAP makes it possible for our songwriter and composer members to write the next song, to earn a living and to support their families. No one else in the industry has the backs of songwriters like ASCAP.”

Additionally, the PRO marked its 110th year on Feb. 13, and announced several new ASCAP family members, including songwriter and producer Jack Antonoff, pop star PinkPantheress, Jared Leto and Shannon Leto of 30 Seconds To Mars and South African singer-songwriter Tyla.

Pictured (L-R): RIAA’s Mitch Glazier, Recording Academy’s Todd Dupler, Natalie Grant, Recording Academy’s Alicia Warwick and RIAA’s Jackie Jones during ELVIS Act Advocacy Day at the Cordell Hull State Office Building. Photos: Jason Davis/Getty Images for the Recording Academy

The Ensuring Likeness Voice and Image Security (ELVIS) Act will move forward to the final stage of State General Assembly Consideration and Governor’s Signature in Tennessee after unanimously passing the Senate and House Commerce Committees today (Feb. 27).

The ELVIS Act was introduced by Governor Bill Lee along with State Senate Majority Leader Jack Johnson (R-27) and House Majority Leader William Lamberth (R-44) last month. The major legislation updates Tennessee’s Protection of Personal Rights law, making it the first state in the nation to preserve individual voice, image and likeness against irresponsible and unethical artificial intelligence (AI) in the form of deepfakes and audio cloning, and seeks to protect the future of Tennessee creators from the harmful misuse of technology on some online platforms, including computer-generated recordings that resemble artists’ voices or deepfake videos.

The ELVIS Act advanced following personal testimonies from Christian artist-songwriters Natalie Grant and Matt Maher as well as songwriter and Evanescence founding member David Hodges. Additionally, several Human Artistry Campaign members such as Nashville Songwriters Association International (NSAI), the Recording Academy, Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) and SAG-AFTRA mobilized their teams and orchestrated a day of advocacy at the Tennessee State Capitol, where music creators engaged in discussions with legislators, urging them to support the passage of the ELVIS Act. Participants included Tennessee artists and songwriters, mostly based in Nashville and Memphis.

“Every day, there are new stories about deepfakes and AI-cloned voices and images that manipulates someone’s likeness without their consent. This is not just a problem that effects celebrities, this is a human problem that affects us all. As a mother of three daughters, I am terrified by how this technology has been used to exploit teenagers,” said Grant. “It’s fitting that this bill is named the ELVIS Act, because Elvis performed so many different types of songs–from love songs to the blues, from pop songs to gospel music–but he infused them with his distinct voice, likeness, and personal qualities to create something new. Every individual should have the right to control their unique God-given qualities.”

Hodges said, “In a three-minute tapestry of words and music, my gift, and my job, is to get you to laugh or cry and to remember your most cherished times in life through my songs. The ELVIS Act is the first-of-its kind legislation that will put important guardrails around artificial intelligence for music creators. The Volunteer State is where many forms of the world’s music were either born or popularized. Music is intertwined with our history, culture and economy so when technology spits out something based on ingested works created by people, something that is unauthorized, something an artist never even sang, that is wrong. Period.” He added, “As a professional songwriter, syllables matter. A single note can change a song. For artists their delivery is part of their brand. They carefully choose the songs they record and release. By adding the word ‘voice,’ the ELVIS Act modernizes current law and makes it crystal clear that unauthorized AI-generated fake recordings are subject to legal action in Tennessee.”

All of this comes as the federal bipartisan No AI Fraud federal gains traction on the heels of congressional testimonies from country artist Lainey Wilson and Recording Academy President & CEO Harvey Mason Jr. as well as nearly 300 actors, artists, musicians and songwriters co-signing these protections.

Beyoncé

Beyoncé‘s “Texas Hold ‘Em” tops the country streaming songs chart this week with 26 million new streams, adding to 48 million ATD, according to Luminate data.

After several weeks at No. 1, Zach Bryan and Kacey Musgraves‘ “I Remember Everything” descends to No. 2 with 17 million streams, adding to 524 million ATD, while Morgan Wallen‘s “Last Night” remains at No. 3 with 12 million new streams, adding to 1.221 billion ATD. Bryan’s “Something In The Orange” stays at No. 4 with 11 million streams, adding to 1.242 billion ATD, and Wallen’s “Thinkin’ Bout Me” reclaims the fifth slot with 10 million new streams, adding to 626 million ATD.

On the country albums chart, Wallen’s One Thing At A Time takes No. 1 once again with 64K in total consumption (1.6K album only/81 million song streams). Bryan’s self-titled collection returns to No. 2 with 37K (2.1K album only/45 million song streams), followed by Wallen’s Dangerous: The Double Album at No. 3 with 36K (342 album only/46 million song streams). The late Toby Keith‘s 35 Biggest Hits lands at No. 4 with 30K (9K album only/26 million song streams), and Bryan’s American Heartbreak holds No. 5 with 26K (943 album only/33 million song streams).

Cindy Mabe and Dawn Gates

Universal Music Group Nashville has started a new TV and film production company, Sing Me Back Home Productions. The company will emphasize storytelling through music integration of UMG Nashville’s roster of past and present artists.

The new division will be helmed by UMG Nashville Chair & CEO Cindy Mabe and SVP of Digital Business and Creative Development Dawn Gates. This new division will develop a content slate for a variety of documentaries, original scripted and unscripted television, feature films and short form content, and will be heavily involved in securing production partners, music supervision and distribution.

“Country music has always been the home of the richest storytellers in music. Storytellers like Merle Haggard, whose song ‘Sing Me Back Home’ helped frame the intent and name behind our production company,” says Mabe. “Songs and stories can transport people and literally sing them back home no matter where they are in the world. Creating a new canvas for our storytellers to paint was a natural next step for our artists to talk to their fans in a new way.

“With several productions underway, this new endeavor fits prominently into what we are sustaining and building as a music company: roots, legacy, music discovery, and storytelling. We are finding faith, family, and heartland are at the core of our business and we are making sure we are building generational content for different mediums across a variety of platforms and shepherding it into the homes of our audience.”

Sing Me Back Home Productions has partnered with ITV America’s Thinkfactory to develop and produce a new docuseries that will follow Michael Trotter Jr. and Tanya Trotter, the Grammy-nominated husband-and-wife duo The War And Treaty. Thinkfactory’s CEO Adam Reed will follow the couple to show how they work together to navigate their careers and home-life. The War And Treaty docuseries, which is already in the works with a broadcast partner, is the first among many projects in development via Sing Me Back Home Productions’ broader collaboration with Thinkfactory Media.

“Country music and its community of artists, past and present, offer such a vast and rich world to explore for content,” shares Reed. “As Thinkfactory doubles down on work rooted in the Heartland, we’re incredibly bullish on the projects we’re developing with Sing Me Back Home, and we admire what Cindy and her group are building at a time when the genre and its hitmakers are flying higher than ever.”

Coming up for the company will also be the release of documentary Gloria Gaynor: I Will Survive via partnership with Storyville Entertainment. Emmy-nominated Betsy Schechter produced the film which follows the journey of music icon Gloria Gaynor. The documentary premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival, and was the official opening night film at the Nashville Film Festival, where it also won the Audience Award. The film also won the Best Feature Documentary Award at La Femme Women’s International Film Festival in Los Angeles and most recently won The Palm Springs International Film Festival audience award “Best Of Fest.”

“We are thrilled to have the expertise of Cindy, Dawn, and the Sing Me Back Home team to partner on producing Gloria Gaynor: I Will Survive,” shares Schechter. “Just like her iconic song ‘I Will Survive,’ Gloria’s life is equally inspirational and this film has the power to impact audiences around the world for years to come.”