link me to yr band plz

$50 free bucks a year to be played on the internet, I can dig it. Thats like, 50 extra thirstbusters per year.

i don't know if this is relevant or helpful at all but from my relatively small amount of knowledge about how my station which is non profit, we basically pay all our money to some unknown group of people who have lots of rules dictating what we can and can't play and don't really tell us anything about where our money goes. This is just what i know my stations does to pay for music rights.

for what it's worth, I'll tell you my experience with ASCAP:

once I was in an indie rock band. we cut a record with a legit producer and were well-funded. so, we hired a huge promotions company (the ones the yeah yeah yeahs and white stripes used at the time) to do our college radio campaign. it was very successful, we were in heavy rotation for weeks on over 100 stations and were #1 on 28 stations. This isn't *huuuuge* success, but we were beating a number of new major-label releases in the same markets. feelsgoodman.

total radio play (mechanical) royalties for 38 weeks of solid airplay on hundreds of stations? $57

THANKS ASCAP!

the reason is that most stations pay blanket royalties to ASCAP/ BMI / SESAC, which the individual rights organizations then dole out based of percentage of the market. so even if you are doing great in small markets (college radio chiptuene shows), you area still competing (withn the right organization) for the money that station is paying with lady gaga and biebs, regardless of whether or not they are actually played on that station. basically, if you have a major label team of lawyers behind you, you are likely taking that money.

all I get from ASCAP is letters on how bad piracy is and how I need to write my congressman supporting ACTA or SOPA or PIPA, but I have made CONSIDERABLY more money from piracy than from ASCAP.

/my 2¢

It's not being played rampant throughout the streets; but I've been on DI.fm and I've gotten on several other radio stations from time to time, mostly random late-night chiptune shows. I know a couple stations play some regularly but I don't keep up with it in detail.

is anyone actually playing your music?

As I said in that thread, it has nothing to do with the release being free or how many.

You can get royalties for radio/internet plays, and performance rights, be it that you play your own songs, or someone else does.

Regardless then of the chipmusic distinction; what benefits would it provide for me as a small scale independent musician with a free release or two?

Exactly.
This is for musicians. It has nothing to do with what type of music you make.
I for one don't see any con, unless you have to pay for memberships (some of them charge for membership, some don't)

The most immediate pro is that you get easy money. Even if little, it could help, you never know.

Why would it be any different for chip musicians than for any other kind of musician?

I'm curious; after reading through this topic I'm wondering how much a membership with a music society such as ASCAP; (in my case specifically SOCAN or other Canadian societies) could benefit chipmusicians like us. I don't imagine it could be of any significant benefit; but I'm curious if any of you have looked into the pros and cons of it in depth.