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vii |
Preface |
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The Society also grants free licenses to the Army, Navy, Air Force, Marine Corps and Coast Guard, making available without charge all compositions in the ASCAP repertory for entertainment programs of the armed services.
Free licenses are also given state-owned, city-owned and college-owned radio stations operated on a noncommercial basis.
ASCAP contributes in money, time and talent, to worthy national and community enterprises. It participates in investigations concerning the use of music in industry, and for therapeutic purposes. It fosters musical talent in schools and colleges.
ASCAP also sponsors the annual Nathan Burkan Memorial Competition, and awards prizes to law students submitting worthy papers on the subject of copyright.
ASCAP cooperates with the U. S. State Department "Voice of America" broadcasts, and participates in the work of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO).
ASCAP's membership has steadily grown from 188 members in 1914 to about 2750 in 1951. There are 2297 writer (composer and author) members, of whom 202 are women, and 453 publisher members. Members come from every state and territory. There are 451 deceased members.
Upon the death of an ASCAP member, royalty payments have usually been continued to his next of kin. Similarly, a composer whose works become posthumously famous may be elected to ASCAP at the instance of his heirs, who thus share in the income from the use of his works.
Membership in ASCAP is open to any composer or author of a regularly published musical composition, and to any active publisher of music whose publications are used on a commercial scale, and who assumes the financial risk involved in the normal publication of musical works. Members whose compositions are performed by licensees of the Society, as shown on the Society's surveys of performances, are entitled to share in the distribution of royalties. Membership is available toevery qualified composer, author or publisher, regardless of sex, color or creed.
The Society is governed by a board of directors, twenty-four in number, twelve writers (i.e., composers and authors) elected by the writer members and twelve publishers elected by the publisher members. Three of the publisher members of the board must be publishers of "standard" (serious ) music, and three of the writer members of the board must be "standard" writers. Elections for the entire membership of the board take place every two years.
The president and other officers of the Society are elected by the board from among their number for one-year terms. The presidents of the Society have been: George Maxwell, 1914-24; Gene Buck, 1924-42; Deems Taylor, 1942-48; Fred E. Ahlert, 1948-50; Otto A. Harbach, 1950 to date.
ASCAP is an entirely nonprofit association. The revenue which it col- |
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