Hey, I won an ASCAPLUS Award! For my Sensitive Chaos recorded and live work, in the Popular Music category:
WHO IS ELIGIBLE
The ASCAPLUS Awards Program is for writer members of any genre whose performances are primarily in venues not surveyed; and/or writer members whose catalogs have prestige value for which they would not otherwise be compensated.
(This means that performers like me who receive lots of radio airplay from Public or College Radio stations that is not surveyed via ASCAP surveys, or play in venues off the beaten path like coffee houses, planetariums, and the like.)
WHO DETERMINES AWARDS
ASCAPLUS Awards are determined annually by a panel of distinguished music experts who are neither members, nor employees of ASCAP, and are completely independent in their Award adjudication.
(In my case, Peter Filichia [theater journalist and critic of the Newark Star Ledger and the website Theatre.com], Peter Koopnows, Brian Mansfield [Nashville correspondent for USA Today and is the author of Remembering Patsy. He has penned liner notes for several albums, including titles from Emmylou Harris, Merle Haggard, and Conway Twitty], Melinda Newman [Melinda Newman is the West Coast bureau chief for Billboard Magazine], and Pat Prescott [radio disc jockey and co-host of the Brian McKnight Morning Show with Pat Prescott on KTWV 94.7 The Wave in Los Angeles].)
HOW AWARDS ARE DETERMINED
ASCAPLUS Awards are based on panel review of recent activity of writer applicants. Each applicant is considered on merit and in the context of all others applying. ASCAPLUS is not a contest or competition involving the critical evaluation of any specific work or works. The primary basis for panel determinations is the activity generated by each member’s catalog, with emphasis on recent performances.
(I play and record, therefore I exist.)
So, I may not receive any royalties from all my radio airplay or internet airplay, but I will get a few bucks from this award. Who’d a thunk it?