[Fmpro] ASCAP and Foreign Royalty Fee Disclosure (was ASCAP & Taxes)

[Mark Northam]

[I've renamed this thread to avoid confusion since we're now talking about
ASCAP incoming foreign royalty fees, not taxes.]

On 6/3/07 11:44 PM, "Pete" <musical411 at yahoo.com> wrote:

> I doubt anyone assumes that the money is collected on
> their behalf at no expense. If they do, then they
> probably believe in the tooth fairy too.

Yes, but I doubt any member would actually choose to have ASCAP **not**
disclose on their statements the amount of fees they charge. I fail to see
what benefit it is to ASCAP members to not disclose these fees on member
statements. As I said, it's just another column. Assuming there is a fee
charged is hardly a justification to fail to disclose the amount of that fee
on member statements.

> Comparing ASCAP to a bank or a stock broker seems a
> little Apples-vs-Oranges to me.

Let's compare ASCAP receiving an incoming foreign royalty amount for a
member to Bank of America receiving an incoming foreign wire transfer for a
customer.

Both ASCAP and B of A:

* Receive hundreds of millions of dollars of incoming foreign amounts for
the clients/members, which are then credited to the client/member's account
and paid to them. 

* Charge fees to handle the incoming foreign amount and pay it to the
client/member.

Quite simply, they both handle incoming foreign payments that are sent to a
US client in care of their institution. But that's where the similarity
ends...

At Bank of America:
* Original source amount that was sent is always disclosed
* The currency translation rate is is always disclosed
* The money is available in a few days usually
* All fees and deductions charged by the bank are disclosed on the statement
* The bank makes no effort to hinder your communication with the sender of
the payment to confirm the amount

At ASCAP:
* The original source amount that was sent is not disclosed on statements
* The currency translation rate is not disclosed on statements
* The money usually takes months to become available
* No fees and deductions charged by ASCAP are disclosed on the statement
* ASCAP prevents the member from communicating with the sender of the
payment to confirm the amount

While banks and other financial institutions that handle millions of dollars
of client's money realize their professional obligation to fully disclose
all elements of the transactions, ASCAP does exactly the opposite and hides
critical data from members by not including the original source amount, the
translation rate, or the fees and deductions it charges on member statements
when it comes to incoming foreign royalties.

You can slice this any way you want, but it all adds up to non-disclosure
and an utter lack of transparency.

Best,

Mark Northam