Title: Performing Rights Organizations - What Are They?

A.  First, please note that participation in a PRO is not mandatory and is entirely optional. 

A performing rights organization's (PRO) function is collecting performance royalties on behalf of its member composers and publishers. The PRO then distributes these royalties to its members, minus the PRO's administration costs. Most composers and publishers at AudioSparx.com are members of a PRO.

PROs license public performances of their members' music which includes primarily television broadcasting (network television, cable TV, cable movie channels such as HBO, Showtime, etc., as well as radio broadcasting.  Additional music rights licensing is done by PROs for use of music in nightclubs, stores, restaurants and other public performances. PROs only licenses performing rights, and only non-dramatic performing rights.

Dramatic Rights (which are not licensed by the PROs) include performances you would see on Broadway or other theater type of performance. These rights are negotiated directly with AudioSparx.com rather than through a PRO.  Performance royalties are collected for movie theater performances in almost every country except the United States of America.

Rights such as mechanical rights, grand rights, master rights or synchronization rights are NOT licensed by PROs.   AudioSparx direct-licenses all of these rights including mechanical, sync, master use, grand rights, and other rights as well for some situations where there is public performance of the music other than in broadcast television, radio, and communication to the public.

Performing rights organizations monitor their members' music when it is performed on the radio. In Television and Film performances, PROs use what is known as a Cue Sheet to keep track of whose music is used in which broadcast or film. These Cue Sheets are filled out by the producer and submitted to each PRO who has a member represented on the Cue Sheet. The fees paid to the performing rights organizations are typically paid by the broadcaster and are not the responsibility of the producer.

To see a comprehensive list of performing rights organizations worldwide, click here.