Four Major US Pros Announce Expansion of Songview to Include Musical Works Information from GMR and SESAC

September 29, 2025

ASCAP, BMI, GMR and SESAC Collaborate to Provide a Single Source of Detailed Public Performance Copyright Information for Over 38 Million Songs Offering Even More Transparency for the Industry

NEW YORK (Sept. 29, 2025) - The four major performing rights organizations in the United States today announced a landmark expansion of Songview, the industry's comprehensive US public performance copyright data resource launched by ASCAP and BMI in December 2020. For the first time, the expanded Songview platform will feature information for over 38 million musical works licensed by the four major performing rights organizations in the United States, offering the industry the most authoritative view of public performance copyright ownership and administration shares from a single source. This effort builds on each of the PRO's long-standing efforts to provide comprehensive data for their respective repertoires.

Over the coming months, Songview will begin incorporating data from GMR and SESAC, starting with the addition of all 100%-owned works represented by GMR and SESAC. In addition, Songview will enhance the limited data that currently appears for GMR and SESAC works by including the publisher names for GMR and SESAC works that have split ownership percentages with ASCAP and/or BMI, one of the most popular information requests from Songview users. The ownership percentages for the GMR and SESAC split works are part of a future plan.

"As a Member of Congress, I have long called for greater transparency into music licensing to ensure businesses have the information they need to make informed licensing decisions. This is because music ownership data has for years been fragmented and opaque, compounded by continued growth in the performing rights industry," said Congressman Scott Fitzgerald (WI-05). "With today's announcement, we take a giant step towards transparency, and towards my goal of a complete and authoritative database. I congratulate ASCAP, BMI, SESAC, and GMR on their partnership, and I look forward to continuing to work with them to ensure the database meets the needs of Wisconsin businesses."

House IP Subcommittee Chairman Darrell Issa (CA-48) said, "Our copyright system is the backbone of our creative economy, with clarity and transparency essential to ensuring creators have the compensation they deserve while licensees have the predictability they need. I congratulate ASCAP, BMI, SESAC, and GMR on the launch of a new and improved Songview to enhance clarity and transparency in music licensing."

ASCAP CEO Elizabeth Matthews commented, "We are thrilled to collaborate with BMI, GMR and SESAC as we innovate to provide more transparency to licensees into musical ownership data for the combined repertories of the most performed music in the world."

BMI President & CEO Mike O'Neill added, "It was always our intention to ensure Songview would be the single most comprehensive source of copyright information for the industry, which is why the addition of GMR and SESAC data is so important. Having the four major US PROs come together to enhance data transparency highlights how we as an industry can successfully collaborate and deliver solutions that benefit the entire music community."

Randy Grimmett, Co-Founder and CEO of Global Music Rights commented, "With the addition of the GMR and SESAC repertoire to Songview, the most comprehensive view of US songwriter and publishing information will represent over 38 million works. This is a major step in addressing the needs of licensees for a comprehensive view of PRO licensing obligations."

John Josephson, Chairman & CEO of SESAC said, "The addition of SESAC and GMR to Songview will provide a comprehensive view of ownership data and licensing representation for the largest music market in the world. This collaborative solution addresses requests from licensees and Congress that extends the visibility of repertory data already available from SESAC."

The Songview engine was built from the ground up by a cross functional team of copyright, technical, distribution and product experts from ASCAP and BMI. The system ingests song ownership information, processes and reconciles that information based on agreed-upon rules, then sends the reconciled data back out to the ASCAP and BMI searchable databases. Information displayed for those works includes songwriters and their affiliations, publisher data, performers, alternate song titles and ISWC and IPI codes. Reconciled songs appear with a green checkmark to indicate that each of the PROs agree on the information.

The information is free to the public and currently accessible on the ASCAP and BMI websites.

Contact:
Cathy Nevins for ASCAP
[email protected]

Jodie Thomas for BMI
[email protected]

Larry Solters for GMR
[email protected]

Jenna Smith for SESAC
[email protected]