A report just released by ASCAP (American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers) shows a 6% drop revenue in 2010 to $935 million. Despite the decline ASCAP paid out $845 million in distributions to members, a decline of just 2.1%. They blamed the fall in revenue on the slower economy and court setbacks which lowered certain royalty rates.
ASCAP said that it operates on a 13.9% expense ratio thanks to new technologies. In the statement, ASCAP claimed that "no other U.S. performing rights organization has ever reached the $800 million dollar level in distributions. In fact, during the past three years, ASCAP has distributed over $2.5 billion to its member owners."
