Performances Abroad – Things You Need To Know

Although it is the responsibility of our affiliated societies to collect royalties on behalf of IMRO members in their territory and send them to us for distribution, it is possible that some performances of IMRO members’ music are not identified by the societies in question.

This can happen primarily for two reasons. Either such performances may simply not be covered by the distribution policies of the societies in question or not enough information is provided to identify the performances. These policies vary from society to society and where a performance does not qualify it will not feature.

IMRO makes every effort to ensure that “qualifying performances” in overseas territories do feature in the distributions of the societies concerned. We do this by notifying those societies of the full performance details when available. These include performances in the category classified by some societies as ‘Classical or Serious´ Music or ‘Live Symphonic and Recital´ performances. It is for this reason that we always urge our members to notify us of their foreign performances. Details of all such performances can be notified to us online through the members area of the IMRO website.

However, you should be aware that, in the case of the USA, the societies in that territory survey live performances in different ways.

In the case of ASCAP, where the majority of the IMRO repertoire is administered, it surveys as follows:

Works performed in the Top 300 grossing tours that take place in the USA each year.

Musical performances at the following 14 live concert music venues:

Hollywood Bowl (Los Angeles, CA)

Staples Center (Los Angeles, CA)

Gibson Amphitheatre At Univ. CityWalk (Universal City, CA)

American Airlines Arena (Miami, FL)

Knight Concert Hall (Miami, FL)

BB&T Center (Sunrise, FL)

Beacon Theatre (New York, NY)

Madison Square Garden Arena (New York, NY)

Radio City Music Hall (New York, NY)

Theater At Madison Square Garden (New York, NY)

Bithorn Stadium (San Juan, PR)

Roberto Clemente Coliseum (San Juan, PR)

James L. Knight Center (Miami, FL)

Coliseo de Puerto Rico (San Juan, PR)

ASCAP also makes payments under its ASCAP OnStage scheme for live performances not surveyed in the above categories.

BMI surveys the Top 300 concert tours and/or concert events/festivals each quarter.

BMI also makes payments under its BMI Live scheme for live performances not surveyed in the above categories.

We encourage you to notify all US performances to us so that we can make sure that performances qualifying under any aspect of the US societies distribution policies or schemes are notified in full to the relevant society to minimise missing or delayed payments.