On Thursday, February 27, ASCAP, The American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers, held its 2025 ASCAP Membership Meeting in midtown Manhattan.
The event kicked off with a performance by multi-platinum songwriter and National Poetry Slam champion IN-Q. Next up, ASCAP Chairman of the Board and President Paul Williams and ASCAP CEO Elizabeth Matthews delivered an ASCAP “State of the Union” address, celebrating the PRO’s 111 years of serving music creators, recognizing ASCAP members’ remarkable achievements in 2024, and detailing its record-breaking financial success of the past year. In 2024, ASCAP collected $1.835 billion in revenue and distributed $1.696 billion in royalties to its songwriter, composer and publisher members.
In his remarks, Williams emphasized ASCAP’s continuing advocacy efforts on AI, noting, “In 2024, ASCAP continued to navigate both the potential and the disruption of AI by staying true to our creator-first, future-forward DNA. We advocated for the rights and royalties of human creators while exploring opportunities to innovate for and with our members.” Looking to the year ahead, he added, “Working together is how we take care of our own. As music creators, our community is built on a foundation of compassion, connection and a sense of purpose. That is our bedrock, where we always land, where we always begin.”
During Matthews’ speech, she elaborated on ASCAP’s yet-again record-breaking financial results from the last year. Emphasizing ASCAP’s mission as a member-founded and governed organization, she told the audience of music creators, “We’re only here because of you— we were founded by you; we’ll continue to exist because of you. We’ve been around for 110 years, and will be around another hundred years because of you.”
To close out the session, ASCAP Foundation Executive Director Nicole George-Middleton stressed the impact that educational, humanitarian, and professional programs from the Foundation are having on the lives of the next generation of music creators. “Right now, there are 4 million students in the US who lack access to music education in their schools. And 1.3 million of these students are in elementary school. That’s why the work we do at The ASCAP Foundation is so critical right now. And why we’ve spent so much of our recent time and energy identifying ways to reach as many of these children as we can.”
The Meeting was followed by an educational song creator panel with ASCAP songwriters and composers at the top of the pop, film music and musical theater spheres, featuring songwriter, publisher, and producer Ashley Gorley (“Play It Again,” Luke Bryan; “hole in the bottle,” Kelsea Ballerini) and Emily Bear and Abigail Barlow, the composers and songwriters behind The Unofficial Bridgerton Musical and Moana 2. Moderated by ASCAP VP of Marketing and Creative Director Erik Philbrook, the panelists discussed their approaches to storytelling and offered practical advice for navigating the ups and downs of the industry. During the panel, Gorley told his story of getting into songwriting while a student at Belmont University - where a teacher first told him about ASCAP, and he became a member for life - while Bear talked about the lessons her mentor, Quincy Jones taught her about his lifelong-learner attitude towards the music industry. Barlow spoke about the importance of finding community and allyship in the songwriting world, and the event finished out with an audience Q&A.
Wrapping up the day, Barlow & Bear gave a closing performance of “Beyond” from Moana 2.
