ascap has 500-plus, about 550,000 songwriters that have chosen to be members of ascap and have givenap the right to license public performances. so ascap now has 550,000 members, songwriter members, a repertory of over nine million songs, and ascap goes out and licenses all the entities that want to publicly perform that music, and then takes in royalties from all the entities. we have over 700,000 licensees across america. takes in the royalties tries to figure out whose music was played, how much, and then distributes that money to the songwriters. so that business model that's come around since 1914 is kind of an efficient way to make sure licensees and songwriters can meet and license the music. but in 1941 the justice department decided the two big -- there's a competitor to ascap called b.m.i., decided to subject them to an antitrust consent decree because of the market share they've had. since 1971 almost 75 years, you had the government as the backstop here, kind of setting the rules for how songwriters' music is licensed through public performance. and i won't get into too m

ascap, home of america's songwriters.presley, still makig music history more than 50 years after he beganlvis presley's graceland

performers are brought to you in part by the american society of composers, authors and publishers, ascapome of america's songwriters. >> elvis presley, still making music history more than 50 years after he began. elvis presley's graceland is proud to be a

ascap, home of america's songwriters. >> elvis presley, still making music history more than 50 yearster he began. elvis presley's graceland is proud to be a sponsor of

. >> when we talk about this flag some have said it has really become ascape goat.is is a symbol but what about the other policy issues that should be addressed to perhaps bring african americans more into the fold throughout the country, economically socially, and all of the other ways that are important. >> yeah, i mean to that -- and i have heard, this is a distraction. you know, i think most human beings are multifaceted. we have the ability to care about multiple issues and symbols matter. clearly they mattered to dylann roof. that's typically a one-layered response to those critics. but beyond that will poverty be erased in south carolina with the abysmal education in many of the countries populated by african americans be improved? no, it won't. but what can happen is that people have a sense of pride. that they aren't faced with this ugly symbol that has been used to terrorize them. and also what can happen on the grassroots level, and it's happening with several legislatures black and white throughout the state, is that we can now say the symbol issue has b

the marketplace has grown and what is enable that to grow because alec said his organization like ascap and you may have enabled songwriters to get compensated and focus on the great and they did not on the business side the marketplace for the performance rights that congress made in 1995, julia can explain more about how that has evolved and rubber company placed in that. >> okay. it's funny, so i thought i would have to let a lot of grunt work that you guys have laid a lot of the grunt work for me. alec's talked about the two copyrights in every recording that you here. there's the composition the notes and lyrics and the sound recording. the sound recording is that artist, that recording artist interpretation of that composition. and then fixed permanently somehow to be a recording. so before 1995 1998 before the performance right was created in those two laws there was no performance right% according under federal law. but some in 1998 there was and there was no one to collect the royalties for the performance right. so as services developed and as they need to pay royalties develo

ascap has 550,000 songwriters chosen to be members and has given ascap the right to public performancesscap has 550,000 members songwriter members from a repertory of 9 million songs in ascap is not in mice and resolve the entities that want to publicly perform the music and takes in royalties from all the entities. over 700,000 licensees across america, takes in those royalties, tries to figure out whose music was played how much and distributes money to songwriters. so that business model that has come around since 1914 is an efficient way to make sure licensees and songwriters can meet and license the music. but in 1941 the justice department decided the two big licensors bmi about the same size decided to subject them to an anti-consent degree. since 1941 almost 75 years you have had the government as a backstop your, kind of setting the rules for how songwriter's music is licensed or public performance. we won't get into too much detail, but that is one way the government regulates the marketplace. it says the government is going to control how race are sad and functionally in the

debt ascap a tal and they permit u.s. debt to be prop traded. why? why is it that u.s. debt gets the sack row cinct level? why was it necessary to create an artificial demand for u.s. debt. is it designed to apiece the housing industrial complex by creating a permit spigot to prop up the housing market? i don't know, but we should ask. is it because regularities were directed to create an incentive to buy our debt because of a political need to continue to finance deficit spend something we should ask. is it because regulators believe the u.s. debt is not subject to market forces in it's a question worth asking. whatever the reason one thing is clear, the health and stability of our financial system is based on price systems of u.s. debt. if we have another flash crash that causes foreign investors are reevaluate our treasury markets, we could have a big problem. with an $18 trillion deficit, our debt is hardly risk free. this regulatory planned market system is dangerous because it concentrates one form or debt on everyone's balance sheet across the system. and if mark

. >> she joined ascap or bmi.t was her choice. >> she could probably afford to have people go around to the radio stations. she is uniquely powerful, just because of her sheer scale, she could rise above that particular regulatory -- >> any songwriter can go to a nonregulated and nonconsent. >> i bet they give her an invitation if she wants. >> going back to taylor swift. she is obviously tremendously powerful and getting the message about porting fair pay for artist out there. congress right now is looking at copyright issues, looking at music license inc. issues. there is one thing that we should do. we should make sure artists and copyright owners have the opportunity to get your market alley for their work. >> e.on on her rights, she has influence. if she wrote that letter to the most valuable company on the planet or a polite letter to congress, when they turn around in 24 hours? >> there are people we could ask. >> the rest of the independent sector has done a lot of the groundwork for taylor swift for that

the marketplace has grown and what is enable that to grow because alec said his organization like ascapu may have enabled songwriters to get compensated and focus on the great and they did not on the business side the marketplace for the performance rights that congress made

he also represents ascap, an important player in the space. we also have julia massimino from sound exchange, a company that literally kind of was born out of that 1995 act, and she can explain how that happened. and then to her right, we have kevin erikson, from an interesting advocacy group, but also does a lot of education and things like that. and then jon potter. we wanted to have jonathan potter here to kind of explain it from like theance that are on your phone and how you can access these internet services and kind of explain this in a little bit more detail. my understanding is that taylor swift was not available for this panel, which also says these are four really great speakers. we would have to have a panel of like 100 people to represent every part of this particular ecosystem, and that's not possible. we're going to do our best to lay this all down. if i can start with jonathan because jonathan represents app developers, a variety of different companies, and jonathan maybe can explain kind of like the music services that you hav