I understand how performance and mechanical and sync royalties work. I can’t find the answer I’m looking for anywhere: I know the venue pays dues for the right to have people perform; I know the collecting organizations distribute the royalties to the artists who own the IP; but HOW do the organizations know WHICH artists to pay?
If I play 45 songs a night at a local pub, how do I know the artists I actually play, will be paid?
Are set lists supposed to be submitted? Do the collection organizations audit venues to see what was performed? Do all represented artists just get a percentage of all royalties collected, regardless of whether their songs are performed? What is the **mechanism** that puts the money in the pockets of the CORRECT artists? Or IS there one?
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Assuming you’re in the US here (but many countries have similar systems) — ASCAP, the royalties organization, handles royalties for all registered music and musicians in its jurisdiction. If you’re a “customer” of ASCAP, aka anything from a big TV or radio network to a local bar, you pay a licensing fee to ASCAP based on the size and type of your platform. ASCAP does surveys of the various types of platforms and performance venues, and uses those surveys to estimate how often a particular piece of music is getting played and where. It then calculates the royalties to be paid out of the licensing fees, based on the results of those surveys.
If you are performing your own original music live, there is a set list submission procedure for that, in order to earn royalties.
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