BMI and ASCAP Announce Joint Task Force to Address Fraud

Building on SONGVIEW Collaboration, PROs Launch New Initiative to Protect the Integrity of Information Flowing Into Their Databases

Posted in News on May 18, 2023

BMI and ASCAP, the nation’s two leading performing rights organizations, announced today the formation of a joint task force to address suspicious registrations associated with musical works across the collective management ecosystem. Together, ASCAP and BMI have more than 25 million musical works in their combined repertoires.

ASCAP CEO Elizabeth Matthews commented: “Fraud is a complex global challenge that all collective management organizations and DSPs must confront with increasing frequency. Building on the strength of our Songview partnership and leveraging our expertise in building an interconnected data platform, ASCAP and BMI are uniquely positioned to lead this collaborative and proactive approach to enhance the integrity of data in the music industry and to protect the rights and royalties of music creators.” 

BMI President and CEO Mike O’Neill added: “The integrity of our data is paramount and something we spend an enormous amount of time and effort to protect.  Given the explosion of music being uploaded to digital platforms and the speed in which that information connects to databases around the world, we felt it made sense to join forces with ASCAP to address these concerns. Bad actors don’t just limit themselves to one company, or one territory, and the more we can collaborate on this issue, the better it is for everyone involved.”

A cross-functional team of copyright, technical, distribution, legal, business, and product experts from BMI and ASCAP are participating in the new task force aimed at mitigating and preventing fraud or erroneous activities associated with but not limited to the registration of musical works that can result in financial loss or operational inefficiencies. The team will focus on maintaining data integrity within the volumes of registration requests and protocols around identity verification and validation, among other areas. In addition to raising awareness around suspicious activity and schemes, the task force will work with other partners around the globe to share best practices and information that is not deemed competitively sensitive.

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