ASCAP Midwest Membership Director Shawn Murphy provides a detailed account of the history, mission, and function of performing rights organizations. In addition to explaining the services ASCAP provides to its members, Murphy talks about how songwriters and publishers can find revenue streams in an increasingly complex marketplace; and how to navigate the muddy waters of licensing content for Internet radio, ring tones, peer to peer networks, and other new broadcasting venues.

ASCAP Midwest Membership Director Shawn Murphy explains why royalties can be collected on ring tones but not on downloads, and makes a case for why performing rights organizations should be allowed to play a larger role in determining how these boundaries are defined.

ASCAP Midwest Membership Director Shawn Murphy tries to defuse the negative publicity around the recent ruling in favor of performance rights organizations with regard to web casting licenses and royalty rates, and explains why this ruling is a rare and justifiable triumph for songwriters. He also shares his thoughts on the difference between two music fans swapping demos and large scale file sharing.

ASCAP Midwest Membership Director Shawn Murphy describes what ASCAP looks for when recruiting new composers, and outlines the ways in which he helps songwriters with everything from setting up publishing companies to arranging showcases to hiring a manager.

ASCAP Midwest Membership Director Shawn Murphy gives a detailed explanation of how performance royalties are generated in various broadcast media, such as commercial radio, network television, and the Internet. In addition, Murphy outlines some of the factors that affect how much a publisher or songwriter can earn on a given performance, and the reasons why web-based broadcasts continue to pose economic challenges to performance rights organizations and publishers.

ASCAP Midwest Membership Director Shawn Murphy provides a concise definition of “public performance,” and explains the ways in which performing rights organizations drive revenue for both the licensees and the publishers. Related topics include what kinds of businesses require a license to “perform” music and why; how money is collected from these performances; and the role of public performance in the overall music marketplace.

ASCAP Midwest Membership Director Shawn Murphy explains what the company does—and doesn’t do—for songwriters. Murphy outlines the steps a songwriter needs to take in order to be represented by ASCAP, from creating a publishing entity to registering songs to determining percentages of ownership. He goes on to discuss the challenges that many songwriters face in determining publishing splits, and also makes some important distinctions between registering songs and copywriting them.

ASCAP Midwest Membership Director Shawn Murphy offers advice to songwriters on how and when to register a song with a performing rights organization, and warns of the consequences of waiting too long to do so.

Shawn Murphy of ASCAP relates brief histories of his organization and its biggest industry counterpart, BMI, and describes the services that performance rights organizations provide to songwriters and performing artists.

ASCAP Midwest Membership Director Shawn Murphy describes the music publishing course he co-teaches at Columbia College Chicago, and discusses the importance of teaching students the balance between protecting songwriters and being aggressive as a music publisher.

ASCAP Midwest Membership Director and music publishing teacher Shawn Murphy talks about the difficulties in applying the standard royalty model to new kinds of performances such as ring tones and streaming radio, which don’t fit clearly into any existing performance category. In the absence of a new industry standard, Murphy talks about how he helps his students extrapolate ways to monetize performance rights in a changing landscape.