American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers

The American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP) is a not-for-profit performance rights organisation. The ASCAP protects its members' musical copyrights. They do this by monitoring public performances of their music. In 2012, ASCAP collected over US$941 million in licensing fees, and gave out $829 million in royalties to its members. In the United States, ASCAP competes with two other PROs — Broadcast Music Incorporated (BMI) and the Society of European Stage Authors and Composers (SESAC).