Giant music streaming rises cause record $1B+ revenues for ASCAP & a LANDR partnership
ASCAP have revealed record levels of income thanks to music streaming booming, and announce LANDR partnership for member benefits.
The American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP) have announced their revenues from last year and it shows a massive increase. Thanks to a 41% increase in earnings made from music streaming services the company’s distributions were increased by 5.6% on the year before.
Thanks to such a substantial rise in revenues for streamed music ASCAP were able to distribute over $918 million to artists, songwriters and publishers. The company works with 600,000 members as a non-profit business getting artists paid for all uses of their music like radio broadcasts and plays in clubs and bars, as well as streaming services.
Thanks to the music streaming boom ASCAP’s revenues have been consistently rising for 3 years in a row now. Domestic distributions from licensed music and performances by ASCAP grew by $55.5 million to $631 million between 2015 and 2016, an almost 10% rise.
Foreign revenues also showed significant growth of $1.5 million US dollars for a total of $300 million. ASCAP’s foreign revenues would have been vastly higher (roughly $12.9 million higher) but for the strengthening of the US dollar currency, which created lower foreign exchange rates when collecting revenues worldwide.
Shortly following their 2016 revenue report ASCAP also revealed that they are partnering with digital audio mastering company LANDR to offer their members free mastering on tracks. LANDR works using various formulas to analyse audio, detect it’s genre and alter elements of the track based on it’s context with the aim of improving the sound quality like an auto-master copy.
ASCAP’s CEO, Elizabeth Matthews, said of the partnership: “Songwriters and composers are the heart and soul of music, and ASCAP’s mission is to support them creatively and professionally at every stage of their careers. Together with LANDR, we are offering them a valuable tool that they can use to bring their music to the world. In the future, ASCAP members can look forward to more best-in-class benefits that meet their needs and create more opportunities for them to succeed.”
The new pairing of LANDR and ASCAP will give ASCAP members access to LANDR’s basic subscription as well as one HD WAV per month. Included in the subscription are unlimited mastering demos, studio jam sessions and live sets. Users will also be able to make use of LANDR’ “smart sharing” which lets you share works privately.
LANDR CEO, Pascal Pilon said: “LANDR’s mission has always been to support all musicians throughout their careers, which is of course perfectly aligned with ASCAP’s vision to represent, support, and compensate songwriters and composers. We believe firmly in fair compensation for music creators, and by partnering with ASCAP we’re in an excellent position to support that. By using our mastering service, all ASCAP members will be able to take their sound even further. Anything that helps bring more music into the world is always a beautiful thing.”