Peace on Air

Weary after seven months of music war, ASCAP last week made peace with NBC, the biggest network of them all. The end of radio's bitter music war was in sight.

But for ASCAP it was not only peace without victory but peace at its expense. Provisions:

1) NBC will pay ASCAP 2 3/4% on its network commercial time sales, NBC affiliates 2 1/4% on local time sales.

2) NBC will also pay $200 a year for each station using ASCAP music on network sustaining and public-service programs.

During the music war ASCAP has lost $2,500,000 in receipts. But that loss is trifling compared with some of its others:

^ It no longer is the exclusive music mill for radio. BMI, into which the radio industry has poured some $2,000,000, will continue as an ASCAP rival.

^ ASCAP stands to make $1,000,000 per year less than it did in 1940 when its take from radio was around $4,500,000.

>Its self-perpetuating board of directors has been ruled out by stipulation with the Department of Justice, and it is not allowed to limit its membership to songwriters with five tunes to their credit.

One point on which ASCAP triumphed was to make the networks pay for its music instead of throwing the whole burden to individual stations. The 5% ASCAP got before the war came out of the earnings of individual stations; until the new contract was signed no network save Mutual paid anything for ASCAP wares.

When Mutual signed with ASCAP last May, it offered to ASCAP 3% of its gross receipts, but its contract gives it the privilege of scaling down this fee to match any more favorable deal rival networks might make with ASCAP. CBS was still outside the fold last week, but it seemed likely to follow NBC's suit, sign up with ASCAP at drastically reduced fees. ASCAP went to war full of steam and confidence.

Last week it was tired and eager to appease. Not even the most ardent BMIte had expected radio to win so decisively.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.