licensing manager

licensing associate

java developer

developer

Ascap

When I took the job it seemed too good to be true, which it was. It's less about customers needing to get a music license and more about you cold calling businesses to talk them into a music license. You are stuck for 4 months in the cold/dark office during the training period. If you don't make the goals set, you will be let go by month 6 after being put on a training improvement program. Otherwise, you actually get to do your job from home.

They have changed the way they go about obtaining the licenses, "a nicer way", but this way makes it even harder to get licenses and maintain your goals. They don't tell you that most days you can make 40-50 calls and leave 40-50 voicemails since people don't like to pick up the phone or call you back. This job is literally about luck.

The management doesn't communicate with staff very well and the most recent "training classes" seem to be guinea pigs to see which way they are going to try next to deal with customers. I love what PRO's do and fight for, but I don't enjoy the way they do it.

This just isn’t for me because I don’t enjoy being either yelled at, by customers, on a daily basis or hoping the next call someone’s going to actually pick up. You also have to find most of your own new customers. If you’re cool with 8 hours of negativity, then this is the job for you. 

The only perks to me are, you can make some great money with the variable commission and I’ve met some amazing friends working for the company.

Upper management will hand out surveys to be completed by employees.  The content of the survey does not matter, the responses given by the employees do not matter.  The surveys are a ruse simply used for the purpose of making company wide changes that negatively affect employees and positively affect the all mighty dollar, and provide a way for upper management to hide behind the survey as the reason for this change.

Management rewards those who work the hardest by giving them more work than is physically possible to complete in a timely fashion, then penalize them for that.

Certain managers do not do their work and instead pass along their assignments to the people below them who already have a massive work load.  These assignments are usually given only hours before they are due to the employees who have never received proper training on that specific transaction.  The employees are then yelled at and berated by these particular managers.  In order to complete all of this extra work employees will work 11 hour days while not being compensated for the extra hours.  When appraisals come around employees are reprimanded by these managers for putting out "poor" quality work.  Some employees end up demoted as a result.  These particular managers often leave the company as well to scam another business and harass new employees.

ASCAP's priorities need to change and they need to start caring about their employees.

ASCAP is a wonderful, non-profit organization which sole purpose is to compensate songwriters for their intellectual properties. While I believe that this simple idea is prodigious, I still believe there are things that should be reconsidered. 

For example, the approach to business owners needs to be altered to project more credibility, as well as producing a great awareness for this monstrous organization. ASCAP has been around since 1914, but the majority of business owners know nothing about the company or the basic understand of Federal Copyright Law.

Lastly, I find the annual rates for several businesses to be excessive and unnecessary, e.g. a personal trainer who exclusively uses a single-speaker radio for music, but the square footage of his business is too large to be considered as exempt from the music license; or the coffee shop that has local artists come to play live music 1-2 nights, but it's going to cost them nearly $400.

I have thoroughly enjoyed my time at ASCAP and have learned so much about copyrights, songwriters, how to fight for these songwriters, as well as the inner workings of various businesses and their respective owners, but I am interested in pursuing a career that can utilize my personable, outgoing nature and organizational skills, rather than making phone calls in my home to various business owners within ASCAP's Northeast territory.

The management there was great and I loved my boss and the co-workers were great. It is also cool working on music row and getting to say you work in the music industry; but the advantages end there.

If you see an ad to be a Licensing Specialist, run! You have to call companies and harass them and threaten to sue them if they do not obtain a music license. Even when people ask you not to call them back, they encourage you to tell them you have to keep calling them until they pay for the license. This position was extremely stressful because of the negativity and constant arguing with people on the phone. That's what you do all day every day. Then you are expected to bring in a certain amount of money per month and if you don't you have to have a performance assessment. 

However, if you don't mind arguing with people and being yelled at and cussed at doesn't bother you, you could make a very good living working there. They have a good base salary and you make commission on the licenses you bring in. Some people there did very well and didn't mind it at all. But it's not for the faint of heart!

Sales Training was a joke. No advancement opportunities.  Absolutely NO perks. Forget about the possibility of being included or invited to any events on or offsite. One track minded management team. Managers have a quota as well and are known for taking bigger sales away from other reps only to take credit themselves to impress upper management. At the Nashville office, there are 3 floors in the building. First floor is the Lobby. Third floor is the Creative dept. The second floor is for the Sales Team. Employees found on the second floor are shunned from any and all perks and are completely ignored by everyone else in the building. The work space for the second floor is extremely to small and is unusually way to quiet to be a sales floor.. Expect to be very disappointed in your career choice to work in sales for this company after about week 3.

Working at ASCAP was enjoyable and always gave me a feeling of self accomplishment.  Worked closely with all departments as my position required it.  This gave me an opportunity to interact with other employees and learn more about the music business.  This also gave me the tools necessary to answer any questions the members had regarding their works, credits and royalties.  The hardest part of the job was when the members were having legal issues due to licensing and I was limited in assisting in that area as they needed to involve an entertainment lawyer.  Due to possible conflicts of interest.

I've been working for Ascap for the last 16.5 years until my position was outsourced. I practically was born there. I started as a software developer and gradually transformed myself into business system analyst and technical manager. As you can see from my resume, I ve been involved in brand new projects as well as modifications in the existing systems. I worked closely with business community to address their wishes and requirements. The people at Ascap are the most creative and hard working people I have seen. While working on the night shifts, we went through a lot of daily and nightly challenges together meeting due dates and releasing defect free products.

I absolutely love the upper management on a personal level however there is often communication issues and important information often does not make its way to the sales reps on the phone.  I tend to feel disconnected working from a home office and rarely get to enjoy my coworker's company.  little to no micromanaging, you must be completely self-sufficient and not be afraid to ask for help.  If you are able to discipline yourself to work a full day with no one checking in and occasional work extra hours to meet monthly goals this can be a very easy stabile job.

Hours 8 to 4pm
Direct management (team lead) was impatient, some times rude and made me feel uncomfortable at times, They didn't like to answer questions and training was poor/ minimal.
I felt that the culture in my particular department was rude, gossipy, childish, stressful and it didn't have to be any of those things
The hardest part was dealing with my team lead and certain people in the department who clearly didn't like me nor did I feel welcome at times. 
Their expectations were unreasonable.
The most enjoyable part of the job was the pay check and getting to go home.
There are some really good people there, but the bad outwayed  the good.

Don't believe the hype in the interview. If you're working in the distribution dept, it's all about performance. Performance meaning linking songs to performances and understanding the ASCAP way. They'll give you 6 months and say, "you're not a great fit." which results in a high turn-over. It's very segregated and gossipy. 

A typical day is sitting at your desk for 8 hours staring at a computer screen. There's one person who trains you and then ships you to your dept. Co-workers hate it there but they've been there since the 80s and just complain instead of leaving.

Top Job Titles	Average Salary
Licensing manager 3 salaries reported	$47,000 per year
Licensing associate 3 salaries reported	$34,333 per year
Java developer 1 salary reported	$65,000 per year
Developer 1 salary reported	$100,000 per year

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