Music Copyright Law Resources : Organizations

ARSC: Association for Recorded Sound Collections

ASCAP: American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers

BMI: Broadcast Music, Inc.

HRCAP: Historical Recording Coalition for Access and Preservation

MLA: Music Library Association

MPA: Music Publishers Association

RIAA: Recording Industry Association of America

Professional organizations often maintain informative websites on their professional views related to music copyright law.  Explore the selected organizations on this below to see what information and links they recommend!

To find out more about professional music organizations, click here.

ARSC: A nonprofit organization concerned with studying and preserving music and speech sound recordings.

ASCAP: Members include U.S. composers, songwriters, lyricists, and music publishers. ASCAP works to protects the rights of its members through licensing and distributing royalties for the public performances of their copyrighted works.

Creative Commons: A nonprofit organization that gives copyright holders free licenses and legal tools to mark their work so that others can appropriately share, remix, and/or use commercially.

BMI: Similar to ASCAP, BMI collects licensing and distrubtes fees for its members who whose works have been publically performed. Members include songwriters, composers and music publishers.

HRCAP: Founded in 2008 to initiate changes in U.S. copyright law in order to improve preservation of and access to our nation's recorded heritage while still being mindful of the creators' rights.

MLA: A nonprofit organization for professional music librarians in the US.

MPA: A non-profit organization and the oldest music trade organization in the US. MPA is a portal for communication and collaboration for publishers, dealers, music educators, and all music users.

RIAA: A trade organization that fosters the creative and financial efforts of major music businesses. According to their site, "RIAA members create, manufacture and/or distribute approximately 85% of all legitimate recorded music produced and sold in the United States."