ASCAP became the first PRO in the world to announce record-breaking revenues of more than $1 billion for calendar year 2014. ASCAP also delivered historic high royalty distributions of over $883 million to its songwriter, composer and music publisher members, up $32.3 million, a nearly 4% increase from 2013. In addition to historical revenues and record breaking distributions to its members, the number of musical performances captured, identified, matched and processed for payment by ASCAP doubled from 250 billion in 2013 to 500 billion in 2014.
Unlike its competitors, ASCAP is an unincorporated membership association and operates on a not-for-profit basis, distributing all revenues after deducting its operating expenses, currently at one of the lowest overhead rates in the world at 12.6%. ASCAP dramatically expanded its surveys of the most significant digital streaming services in 2014, including Apple iRadio, Pandora, Rhapsody and Spotify. The number of writers paid for performances on these services increased by 9X from 2013. ASCAP identified more than 1.3 million unique works played on those services, 30 times more than in 2013.