ROSKILDE, DENMARK – JULY 05: Dave Grohl of Foo Fighters performs at Roskilde Festival 2024 on July 05, 2024 in Roskilde, Denmark. (Photo by Joseph Okpako/WireImage)
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Some songwriters, like Dave Grohl, are switching from America’s big song licensing agencies, BMI and ASCAP, to their British counterpart, PRS for Music, at least when it comes to handling song royalties outside of the U.S.
PRS administers song rights outside of the U.S. not only for Grohl but also for the Prince estate, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Chrissie Hynde and Trent Reznor, among other well known American songwriters.
But in the U.S. – the world’s biggest music market – BMI continues to handle Grohl’s song catalog. Other top songwriters are signed to Global Music Rights (GMR), the U.S.-based performing rights organization (PRO) established by music industry executive Irving Azoff. GMR has appointed PRS to administer song catalogs outside of the U.S. (Full disclosure: the author’s law firm represents GMR on matters unrelated to those explored in this article.)
Dave Grohl’s longtime attorney, Jill Berliner, won’t discuss any specifics of his deals with BMI or PRS, but she provides insights into why some songwriters, especially ones who are also successful performers, might let the English PRO take charge outside the U.S.
“There are two primary reasons why PRS is different and better for PRO collections outside the United States,” Berliner says. “First, for active touring headliners, PRS has created a ‘concierge’ touring arm called the Major Live Concert Service (“MLCS”), which provides special curated and transparent services and special payments to major artists. These special arrangements are better than any other such arrangements with other PROs that I’ve been able to discover.”
And the second reason involves accounting. “PRS’ accounting speed is much faster than BMI or ASCAP,” Berliner says, “and their ‘vig’ on collected income is lower than BMI and ASCAP’s, which means that writers and publishers are paid more quickly and at higher rates for the territories outside the U.S. by switching to PRS.”
Martin Maguire, Director of Business Development at PRS, who appeared recently on the author’s podcast The Music Law Beat, says PRS is able to provide its members with a competitive administration fee of 8% for music on demand streaming services, reportedly lower than what BMI and ASCAP charge. “And we distribute that income monthly as of August of this year,” Maguire says, whereas BMI and ASCAP are on a quarterly accounting system.
“We wanted to give songwriters something akin to a salary,” says Maguire. “It makes it easier for a songwriter to, say, get a mortgage if they can show monthly statements from their predominant source of income.”
And PRO revenue is the predominant source of income for many songwriters, accounting for 70% or more of their income. Royalties collected by PROs are generated each time a song streams online, plays on the radio or is performed at a live venue.
Aside from performance income, songwriters and music publishers can earn substantial money from licensing of “synchronization” rights for use of songs in audiovisual media, games and advertising as well as “mechanical” rights for the sale of music in digital and physical formats and streaming.
While song income can be substantial for a top writer, if they’re also a successful performer then their touring, recording, merch and other income streams will eclipse their songwriting income. But songwriters who are not touring musicians can still make loads without having to hit the road.
And it can be more consistent income than from record sales and other sources, says Lance Phillips, a former sound engineer and now a law partner at Sheridans, a London-based firm with a strong music practice. “Other forms of songwriter income can spike or fall flat. I’ve seen synch fees in the low hundreds to seven figures, but they’re not always a consistent earner, whereas performance income for a successful songwriter is. It’s like bedrock.”
PRS claims it pays songwriters and publishers more quickly than BMI and ASCAP.
The time lag between a song being played somewhere and the royalty being paid out, the so-called “play to pay” delay is around three to four months for PRS, according to Maguire, whereas ASCAP and BMI payments generally come months later than that.
But it still can make sense for a songwriter to keep their domestic PRO for collections in their home turf – whether it’s BMI in the U.S. or SADAIC in Argentina – because the local PRO collects license fees from radio stations and other media and venues in their own territory. PRS would need to receive that income from BMI or SADAIC first and then process and pay it out from London over time, killing that “play to pay” edge.
Nevertheless, quicker payouts from PRS for ex-U.S. song income is a selling point to an American writer or publisher whose music crosses borders, because the U.S. makes up about 25% of global song royalty collections, according to CISAC, a global confederation of PROs, in their 2025 annual report using 2024 data.
ASCAP didn’t reply to a request for comment, but BMI did, saying through their press office: “We commend any organization or society that works to ensure that songwriters receive the highest value for their creative work, as has been BMI’s mission since our founding. Nearly all collective management organizations outside of the U.S. treat their sister societies the same, meaning BMI receives the same benefits for its songwriters that any other society would be touting for theirs. BMI actively engages with its international partners to ensure this outcome.”
ASCAP and BMI, the largest PROs in the world, collectively collect royalties for some 40 million songs. ASCAP reported $1.835 billion in gross revenue for the 2024 calendar year. BMI, which reports on a fiscal year basis, has not publicly reported their gross revenue since 2022, when they announced $1.573 billion in gross collections.
BMI, which stands for Broadcast Music Inc., was formed by the radio broadcast industry in 1939. It was purchased in February of 2024 for a reported $1.7 billion by investors led by New Mountain Capital, which is partly owned by Blackstone Inc.
ASCAP and BMI are each known for their strong songwriter services, important awards ceremonies, and solid protection of song rights through their advocacy for legislation and litigation on behalf of songwriters and publishers. It is unclear whether they are considering changes to their accounting systems, but that would require federal court supervision since both PROs are under consent decrees going back decades.
You can learn more on the author’s podcast, where he’s joined from London by PRS’ Maguire and music attorney Phillips of Sheridans.
Source: https://www.forbes.com/sites/williamhochberg/2025/11/18/the-british-are-coming–for-american-songwriters/
