ASCAP Enterprises Announces Relaunch of Administration Services Business as SONGWIZE


NEW YORK, NY--(Marketwired - March 22, 2017) - ASCAP, the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers, announces the relaunch of its administration services business as SONGWIZE.

Clients of SONGWIZE are rightsholders such as major and independent music publishers who direct license their public performance rights to digital services. SONGWIZE functions as their royalty administration arm, processing and matching performance files and paying royalties in accordance with ASCAP distribution policy and rules. ASCAP'S administration services business has been in operation since 2013.

The launch signals ASCAP's commitment to offering the music industry efficient and cost-effective solutions for royalty processing and payment services, built on the organization's trusted and secure performance rights administration platform. In the last year, the organization has added substantial technological and analytical expertise to a team headed by Senior Vice President Administration Services, Lisa Selden. In 2016, SONGWIZE administered a 121% year-over-year increase in performances across digital service providers including Amazon, Apple, Google Play, Pandora and YouTube.

SONGWIZE leverages the scale and efficiency of ASCAP data; its award-winning enterprise performance management platform; its secure web-based performance rights application; and ASCAP's proven track record of accurate data processing and on-time payments. SONGWIZE services include performance matching, royalty and market share calculations, distributions, and standard business intelligence and data analytics.

"With the increase in streaming music consumption, the number of individual public performances that are occurring is increasing dramatically," said ASCAP Chief Executive Officer Elizabeth Matthews. "Songwize, built on our trusted matching system and transparent distribution rules, ensures that songwriters and publishers can depend on ASCAP for proper royalty processing and payment under a variety of licensing scenarios."

"Songwize is better positioned than any other entity to provide royalty administration services to publishers and digital service providers," said Lisa Selden. "By eliminating the duplicative costs required to build and maintain separate royalty databases, processing platforms and payment infrastructures, Songwize enables more funds to flow to music creators."

About SONGWIZE

For four years, SONGWIZE, a service of ASCAP Enterprises LLC, a subsidiary of the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers ("ASCAP"), has provided leading end-to-end royalty processing and payment solutions for public performance rights in the United States. Clients of SONGWIZE are rightsholders such as major and independent music publishers for direct licenses of public performance rights to digital services in the United States. For more information, visit www.songwize.com.

About ASCAP

The American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP) is a professional membership organization of songwriters, composers and music publishers of every kind of music. ASCAP's mission is to license and promote the music of its members and foreign affiliates, obtain fair compensation for the public performance of their works and to distribute the royalties that it collects based upon those performances. ASCAP members write the world's best-loved music and ASCAP has pioneered the efficient licensing of that music to hundreds of thousands of enterprises who use it to add value to their business -- from bars, restaurants and retail, to radio, TV and cable, to Internet, mobile services and more. The ASCAP license offers an efficient solution for businesses to legally perform ASCAP music while respecting the right of songwriters and composers to be paid fairly. With 600,000 members representing more than 10 million copyrighted works, ASCAP is the worldwide leader in performance royalties, service and advocacy for songwriters and composers, and the only American performing rights organization (PRO) owned and governed by its writer and publisher members. www.ascap.com.

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