[Congressional Record Volume 150, Number 124 (Tuesday, October 5, 2004)]
[Senate]
[Pages S10422-S10423]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                    NINETY YEARS OF MUSICAL SUCCESS

  Mr. LEAHY. Mr. President, I am proud to salute the American Society 
of Composers, Authors and Publishers, better known as ASCAP, on its 
anniversary of 90 years of successful representation of America's 
songwriters and music publishers.
  ASCAP formally began when a group of noted songwriters and their 
supporters gathered at the Hotel Claridge in New York City on February 
13, 1914, at a monumental event that would forever change music 
history. These visionaries, whose members included some of that era's 
most active and talented songwriters, such as Irving Berlin, James 
Weldon Johnson, Jerome Kern and John Philip Sousa, began a tradition of 
outstanding public advocacy on behalf of songwriters that continues to 
this very day.
  Soon after its founding, a prominent member of ASCAP, Victor Herbert, 
brought a lawsuit against Shanley's Restaurant that established the 
legal basis for songwriters to protect their ``performing right'' in 
the music they created. In a legal battle that took 2 years to reach 
the U.S. Supreme Court, ASCAP finally prevailed in a unanimous opinion 
written by Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes. Once their legal authority to 
protect the musical performing right was secure, ASCAP provided its 
owner-members with several ways to be compensated for the performances 
of their copyrighted works.
  In advancing its members' interests, ASCAP has traditionally welcomed 
the marketing of new technologies as opportunities to expand the reach 
of their musical entertainment to new audiences. With the advent of 
radio, ASCAP began an interdependent relationship that remains one of 
its most important sources of revenue to this very day. Today, under 
the leadership of its distinguished chairman and award winning 
songwriter, Marilyn Bergman, ASCAP licenses over 11,500 local 
commercial radio stations and 2,000 non-commercial radio stations and 
ASCAP music is a dominant entertainment feature of our airwaves.
  With the Internet explosion, ASCAP responded with its own 
technological innovations. It fielded ACE, the first interactive online 
song database, and EZ-Seeker software for tracking Internet 
performances. Most recently, it has developed Mediaguide which is 
probably the world's most comprehensive and accurate broadcast tracking 
system. Thus, creative innovation and vigilance on behalf of its 
members have been an ASCAP hallmark since its formation.
  While ASCAP has had a deep involvement with the innovative 
telecommunications technologies and the marvels they have added to our 
lives, its institutional essence is its people. We have all been 
admirers of many of the more renowned ASCAP members who now number in 
the many hundreds over the years. They include such extraordinary 
talents as: Billy Joel, Hal David, Cy Coleman, Garth Brooks, Irving 
Berlin, Prince, Lyle Lovett, Henry

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Mancini, Marvin Hamlisch, Louis Armstrong, Arturo Sandoval, Duke 
Ellington, Madonna, Jimmy Webb, Cole Porter, and, or course, the late 
Jerry Garcia and his bandmates in the Grateful Dead.
  However, as a national organization with international impact ASCAP 
actually represents an additional 185,000 individual songwriter and 
music publisher members, who are less well known. They are the critical 
mass of individual talents that extend into every city, town and hamlet 
in our country.
  Its member-owners and the officers and employees who support them are 
all a part of the traditional ASCAP family. And they are especially 
deserving of the congratulations we extend on this auspicious event. In 
addition, those millions of us who appreciate and enjoy the fruits of 
their creators' talents have become a part of ASCAP's vast extended 
family of enthusiasts.
  So I am wishing a very happy ninetieth birthday anniversary to 
ASCAP's members, officers, and employees on behalf of its huge extended 
family for its years of music success in America and around the world.

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