Publishing companies isn’t something that’s talked about enough. It’s definitely not as straightforward as most people think. On the surface, it sounds great that there is an organization that will collect royalties for artists. In my own experience, these royalties are not paid unless you sign up with a collection service that will probably cost most artists more than what they will recieve for quite some time. Doing it the long way is extremely resource heavy. This is just a reality that is somewhat manageable in the grand scheme of things. The other side of the equation is way more predatory in nature. When I started running music venues, I was happy to pay for the Ascap license. Then when I started receiving calls and emails from several other organizations, I really started to dissect the entire flow of these operations. The conversations that I had with BMI representatives were the most eye opening. It was explained to me that I must purchase a blanket license just in case an artist on their roster played at my venue. I asked if I get refunded if none of their artists performed that year, his answer was “No”.I explained that out of principle I would either keep track of every performance and pay a fee for any artist on their roster or not allow BMI artists to perform. I was told that I was required to purchase a blanket license or I would be fined. So basically, they are taking money from artists that are not on their roster or unregistered and distributing the funds to artists on their roster that have no rights to the music performed. There’s another word for this process.