In November, KNKX published a story about Performing Rights Organizations, or PROs — agencies that collect royalties for the live performance of copyrighted songs and distribute them to songwriters and publishers. PROs collect these royalties from live music venues in the form of Public Performance License fees, which can cost venues anywhere from hundreds to thousands of dollars per year.
Several small businesses in the greater Seattle area told KNKX that the rising costs associated with these licenses were making it difficult for them to continue presenting live music in the community. Similar complaints were echoed by small, independent venues across the country. In response, the U.S. Copyright Office conducted a federal inquiry into the PROs system last year.
After our story was published, KNKX received many questions from you, our listeners and readers, on social media. We followed up with the PROs and did research about your most common questions. Here’s more about what happens when a musician plays all original works, how songs in the public domain impact this issue, and more.
Is the performing artist paying these PRO fees?
No, these music licensing fees are paid by venues that present live music. The fees are then delivered to the copyright holders (songwriters and publishers) by the PROs in the form of royalties. The performing artist may receive performance royalties if they also happen to be the songwriter, but they do not earn royalties for the performance alone.
Is all the music I hear at a bar, for instance, costing the venue?
Generally yes, if they’ve chosen to comply with this legal requirement around the public performance of copyrighted music. That said, some venue owners said they’ve ignored or overlooked outreach from these licensing companies because they felt their emails and phone calls come across as scammy.
While ignoring outreach from PROs is common, some venues have had to pay the price. In June 2025, Seattle’s Pono Ranch was sued by ASCAP because they played copyrighted popular songs without paying for the appropriate performance licenses.
Clearly a cover of a Beatles song would require these licenses, but what about if a songwriter plays their own original material?
Jodie Thomas, executive director of corporate communications and media relations at BMI, told KNKX that these PRO fees apply to more than the presentation of cover bands. Even if an artist plays their original material, venues would still need to pay for performance licenses.
This is because it’s industry standard for a songwriter at any stage in their career to affiliate with a PRO, particularly if they record and perform their music. That means their original songwriting is also registered with one of the PROs, and that venues would still have to pay royalties to present those songs during a live performance.
“To start, if there is a songwriter who is not affiliated with a performing rights organization and is performing at music venues, we would encourage them to sign up with a PRO to ensure they get paid when their music is played publicly,” Thomas said in an email.
What if the venue only presents music that is original and has never been recorded?
According to Thomas, because these music licensing companies represent millions of copyrighted works and copyright owners, it would be very likely that a PRO represents at least some of the “original music” performed, even if it’s unrecorded. Thus, paying for the appropriate PRO licenses would be in the venue’s best interest.
That said, there is a very limited scenario when a license would not be legally required: if a venue only features music from a performing songwriter playing their own original music, they are not a member of a PRO, and never play any cover songs (songs written by someone else), and that is the extent of the venue’s music usage, they could decide not to procure a license.
Still, they would risk copyright infringement if any song played — on TV, from a jukebox, during a karaoke night or during live music performance — is registered with a performing rights organization. As well, they would most likely be contacted frequently by PRO organizations inquiring about their licensing status.
Do venues need to pay fees for the performance of works that are in the public domain?
This is tricky, particularly when it comes to jazz, because many of the classic jazz songs are in the public domain.
In theory, public domain songs are royalty-free and would not be the sort of music that venues would have to worry about having a Public Performance License for. However, even when a musician creates their own arrangement of a public domain piece that would constitute a separate, new copyright with a PRO. In jazz, that is a very common practice.
According to the U.S. Copyright Office Compendium, any change to the lyrics or arrangement of an original song constitutes a new, copyrightable version of a derivative work. So, while the song may be in the public domain, if the musician has changed a chord or a lyric in “Bye Bye Blackbird” and recorded it, their performance of the song would likely be subject to oversight by the PROs.
A huge amount of music is managed by the PROs. For instance, ASCAP and BMI have detailed ownership data on more than 25 million musical works, according to ASCAP’s website. Their repertories include “copyrighted arrangements of works in the public domain.”
How are public performance royalties different from streaming royalties?
As our article defined, PROs like ASCAP and BMI oversee the payout of performance royalties, which they collect from venues who have live music. Streaming royalties, on the other hand, are an entirely different type of royalty called “mechanical royalties.”
Mechanical royalties are payments made to songwriters and publishers for the recording, manufacturing, and distribution of their music. This type of royalty is earned when a songwriter or publisher sells physical music media, like a CD or tape, or when their music is streamed via a platform like Spotify. An entirely different array of organizations, not the PROs, manage the payout of mechanical royalties.
How do songwriters and publishers receive their performance royalty payouts?
According to the U.S. Copyright Office, a songwriter or publisher must sign an agreement that permits PROs to license their music works, or their share of the work, and collect performance royalties on their behalf in order to get paid by a PRO. From there, songwriters and publishers are typically paid their share of the royalties directly by the PROs. Typically, royalties on a song’s public performance are split 50/50 between songwriters and publishers. A performer who is not the songwriter of the material they perform would not receive any royalties from its public performance.
Still have questions? Let us know at outreach@knkx.org.
