Performing Rights Organizations: How to Join a PRO

If you are working out how to join a performing rights organization, start with what the organization does. A PRO collects money generated by public performances of your song. Every songwriter needs a PRO for a practical reason: joining gives you an IPI number, the identifier that tells a society which bank account should receive the performance share listed on a registration.

Below, we cover which society to join, what PROs collect, what falls outside their job, the steps for joining, and where your royalties go before you affiliate.

The quick answer: sign up with ASCAP or BMI as a writer. Writer membership is free at either one, and both provide the IPI number that allows performance royalties to be sent to you. Getting affiliated matters much more than the particular organization you choose.

Your choices in the US

The United States has three operating PROs and one more recent arrival:

• ASCAP: anyone may join, and writer membership is free.
• BMI: open to anyone and free for writers; by writer count, it is the larger of the two.
• SESAC: membership is by invitation, so applications are not available.
• GMR: also invitation only, with a small group of established writers as its focus.

Independent working songwriters therefore have two practical options, covered in depth in our ASCAP guide and BMI guide. In truth, ASCAP and BMI differ less than online debates make them seem. Each combines census information with sampled data, pays every quarter after a lag of about six months, and generally supplies an IPI within weeks. Claims that one consistently pays more usually compare different writers whose catalogs, publishing arrangements, and patterns of airplay are not alike. That tells you very little.

There is one useful way to break a tie. If you regularly write with the same people, choose their society. Cross-society registrations are where split disputes tend to get stuck, so matching your collaborators avoids one source of trouble. Otherwise, select either organization and keep moving.

For writers outside the US, location determines the relevant society: PRS for Music serves the UK, SOCAN serves Canada, SACEM serves France, and GEMA serves Germany, among others. Affiliate in your own territory instead of shopping for whichever name appeals to you.

The royalties a PRO handles

A PRO handles performance royalties, the income created when the public hears a composition. They mainly come from four places:

• Broadcast radio and TV: terrestrial stations plus network and cable television.
• Businesses and public spaces: restaurants, bars, retail stores, gyms, and live rooms.
• The performance portion of streaming: Spotify, Apple Music and other services generate both mechanical and performance royalties. Your PRO receives the performance portion.
• Performances on stage: shows you play yourself as well as covers of your songs by other people.

Knowing what sits outside a PRO is equally useful. Mechanical royalties are not part of its collection job; in the US, those pass through The MLC. A PRO also does not collect sync fees or neighboring rights, the latter being income that belongs entirely to the recording side. Each category has its own registration system, and PRO membership will not cover any of them.

One more exclusion catches writers by surprise, because it looks like a performance. A PRO licenses only nondramatic performances. Staging your song inside a musical, an opera, or a ballet needs a separate license negotiated with you directly, and neither ASCAP nor BMI will sell one or pay you for it. Our explainer on grand rights in music covers where that line falls.

Why your IPI number is crucial

Affiliation prompts your PRO to assign an IPI number, short for Interested Party Information. This internationally maintained CISAC identifier serves as your permanent worldwide songwriter ID. Changing societies does not change it; the same IPI follows you from one PRO to the next.

Many writers learn the next part only after losing money. Every work registration lists its writers and their ownership percentages. A society can accept the filing and name a writer who has not affiliated, but it has nowhere to send that person's portion. When we submit these filings, societies return an unaffiliated writer with a non-society flag, so the registration system cannot direct that share to the writer. The song and its split remain on record. Meanwhile, royalties accumulate under a name with no account attached.

That is how accurate song paperwork can still produce zero performance income for you. The registration is not necessarily broken. What is missing is the receiving account at the other end.

Steps to become a member

1. Choose BMI or ASCAP. Match the society used by regular collaborators when possible. If that does not apply, either works.
2. Submit a writer application. You will provide identity and tax information online. Neither society charges for writer affiliation.
3. Allow time for the IPI to arrive. Approval usually requires a few weeks. The number appears in your member portal and comes with the welcome materials.
4. Enter your IPI in your Davincii profile. Once it is there, performance registrations can be completed across your catalog.
5. Handle publishing affiliation as a separate choice. Performance income always has a writer half and a publisher half. Writer membership secures only the first. Without a publisher account connected to your works, the publisher half remains unclaimed. This is the most frequent source of lost income for independent writers, and it is precisely what a publishing administrator is built to address.

Before you become affiliated

Your catalog does not freeze while you are without a PRO. Mechanicals run through another system and use different identifiers. Filing a mechanical registration requires a confirmed legal name and a publisher, but no IPI. That means registration and collection on the mechanical side can proceed while you wait for PRO approval.

Only performance income stays in limbo. The works themselves may be submitted, although no share can be directed to you before the IPI is issued. Future registrations can include the number after you add it.

This mismatch is why joining early makes more sense than waiting until missing royalties catch your attention. Performance income comes with claim windows. Resolving several years of unrouted shares with a society is far more difficult than identifying your share properly on the original filing.

Davincii's role

We file your works for performance and mechanical royalties, and we claim the publishing half instead of letting it sit. We cannot obtain a PRO membership for you. Writer affiliation is personal, based on your identity and tax information, so you must submit it yourself.

The responsibilities divide cleanly. You secure membership and send us the IPI. We take care of registrations, split information, collection, and communication with the societies.

Already affiliated but still need to enter your number? Adding it in your artist profile takes roughly thirty seconds, and doing so opens the performance side retroactively for everything currently in your catalog.