While ASCAP and BMI have “Reciprocal Agreements” with societies in India (IPRS) and Africa (like SAMRO in South Africa), these agreements are often limited to Performance Royalties (Radio/TV). They rarely cover Mechanical Royalties (Streaming), which means a large chunk of your income from these regions is likely sitting unclaimed. To collect 100% of your money, you need a publisher like Audiobulb that can claim your mechanicals directly in these territories.
India and many African nations are “high-growth” music markets, but their royalty collection infrastructure is very different from that of the US or Europe. If you are an ASCAP member, here is the reality of your global paycheck.
1. The “Performance” Side: What ASCAP Does
ASCAP has contracts with major societies like IPRS (India), SAMRO (South Africa), and MCSK (Kenya).
- The Process: When your song plays on a licensed radio station in Delhi or Cape Town, the local society collects the money, takes a fee, and eventually sends it to ASCAP.
- The Problem: This process is notoriously slow and “leaky.” If your song data isn’t perfectly matched in the local Indian or African database, the money is never sent to the US.
2. The “Mechanical” Side: The Massive Gap
This is the biggest issue for independent artists. ASCAP does not collect mechanical royalties.
In India and many African countries, mechanical royalties for streaming (the money Spotify and Apple Music pay to songwriters) are collected by different entities:
- India: IPRS now collects both, but mechanicals are often handled through complex local licensing deals.
- Africa: Mechanicals are often handled by CAPASSO (covering most of Southern and East Africa).
Because ASCAP is a Performance-only society, they cannot talk to CAPASSO. If you don’t have a publisher to bridge that gap, your streaming mechanicals from these regions stay in those countries’ “Black Boxes” forever.
3. The 3-Step Strategy to Collect Every Cent
If your Spotify for Artists shows high traffic in India or Africa, you need to move beyond a basic ASCAP membership:
Step 1: Direct Metadata Registration
You must ensure your ISRCs (the recording IDs) are linked to your ISWCs (the songwriting IDs) in the global database. If a society in Nigeria sees a stream but can’t find the “Owner,” they can’t pay ASCAP.
Step 2: Use a Global Publishing Administrator (Audiobulb)
Audiobulb doesn’t just wait for ASCAP. We work with global partners who have “direct” relationships with IPRS and CAPASSO.
- We register your work directly in these territories.
- We collect both the Performance AND the Mechanical shares.
- We bypass the “Reciprocal Lag,” getting your money back to you months faster.
Step 3: Track Unlicensed Usage
In markets like India and Africa, music is often used in unauthorized “User Generated Content” (UGC) on platforms like YouTube and Facebook. As we mentioned in our tracking post, Audiobulb monitors these platforms 24/7 to turn those unlicensed views into paid royalties.
Comparison: ASCAP vs. Audiobulb in Emerging Markets
| Royalty Type | ASCAP Only | ASCAP + Audiobulb |
| Radio (India/Africa) | ✅ Collected (Slowly) | ✅ Collected (Directly) |
| Streaming Performance | ✅ Collected (Eventually) | ✅ Collected (Monthly/Quarterly) |
| Streaming Mechanicals | ❌ NOT COLLECTED | ✅ COLLECTED |
| UGC / Social Media | ❌ Not Tracked | ✅ TRACKED & CLAIMED |
FAQ: Collecting from Emerging Markets
Why is Africa so difficult to collect from?
The African continent has over 50 countries, but only a handful have fully functioning collection societies. Many use “blanket licenses” that aren’t yet sophisticated enough to pay individual indie artists without a publisher’s help to “claim” the specific works.
Can I join IPRS or SAMRO directly?
Unless you are a resident or have a local business entity, it is extremely difficult for a US-based artist to join these societies. Even if you did, you would face significant hurdles with local tax laws and currency conversion.
Does my distributor (DistroKid/TuneCore) collect this?
No. Your distributor only collects the “Master” share from the streaming platform itself. They do not touch the “Publishing” or “Mechanical” money from local societies in these regions.4
Summary
If you are an ASCAP member, you are only partially protected in international markets like India and Africa. You are likely missing out on the Mechanical portion of every stream.
Your Next Step: Don’t let your global success go unrewarded. If your music is crossing borders, your publishing needs to be global, too. Connect your ASCAP account to Audiobulb, and we will start hunting down your missing royalties in India, Africa, and beyond.