Before the Internet and technological advances, licensing musical compositions and sound recordings was difficult. Intellectual property rights, like reproduction, creating derivatives, distribution, and public performance, were often owned by entities like music publishers, record labels, or independent distributors, who were hard to contact. If rights were held jointly by these entities, users might have needed to seek permission from multiple parties. For those with limited resources, resorting to pirated recordings, for example, might seem the only practical option, but this risks liability and higher costs. Ultimately, legal use depends on the copyright owner’s ability to make copyright information easily accessible.
Enter Songview, a free and internet-based database which integrates data from the major performing rights organizations (PROs). Created in 2020, the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP) and Broadcast Music, Inc. created this database. Songview provides information, including songwriters, music publishers, International Standard Musical Work Code, and Interested Party Information number codes (used for identifying writers and music publishers across PROs), alternate titles, and affiliations, in an effort to consolidate PRO data into a reconciled platform.[1]
Fig. 1 – Songview’s Results for Bad Bunny’s “Baile Inovidable”.[2]
While Songview’s launch advanced the music industry’s benefits from copyright law, its initial form was not perfect. On the Songview platform, a work is marked with a green checkmark when PROs agree on its ownership. Because Songview is an effort of BMI and ASCAP, which hold the majority share of American writer and publisher affiliations, it missed those affiliated with other domestic and international PROs and collective music organizations (CMOs), leading to inaccurate information and potential unintentional infringement under the U.S. Copyright Act and the Berne Convention.
In September 2025, the Society of European Stage Authors and Composers (SESAC) and Global Music Rights (GMR), the invitation-only domestic PROs, joined the Songview initiative, expanding coverage to over 38 million works.[3] A significant development in copyright law enforcement by private parties, SESAC and GMR’s addition of works by their writer-affiliates will reflect some non-BMI and ASCAP-controlled rights, clearing up the picture of works with joint ownership. However, given the outstanding PROs and CMOs worldwide and the significant global collaboration among music creators, gaps in the recorded copyright ownership system will persist. Nonetheless, this integration has many domestic and international legal benefits and consequences.
Domestically, this will significantly help with the enforcement of Section 106 of the Copyright Act, which lists the copyright owner’s exclusive rights to reproduce, make derivative works, and publicly perform the works, as well as authorizing another party to exercise these rights.[4] Songview creates transparency into who administers or owns the rights for the musical compositions, streamlining access to licensing opportunities for creators and permitted usage by music users.
However, there may be reliance and liability issues, and other conflicts with Congress will arise. While this integration promotes efficiency and transparency, the user-uploaded data increases the possibility for human error. If a licensee relies on incorrect information, questions of liability arise: will the PROs, publishers, or the database operator be held accountable? For example, in the results for “Somewhere Over the Rainbow”, written by Harold Arlen and E.Y. Harburg and made popular by Judy Garland, a Songview record for an arrangement or cover incorrectly credited Garland as a songwriter.[5]
Fig. 2 – Songview’s Results for a cover of “Somewhere Over the Rainbow”.[6]
Moreover, Songview may impact the licensing market by reducing other PROs’ and CMOs’ share in global data and license sales, prompting them to develop their own Songview-like databases. With all four U.S. PROs’ data consolidated, there may be antitrust considerations, viewing it as a contract that restrains “trade or commerce among the several States, or with foreign nations.”[7] In April 2025, the U.S. Copyright Office launched an inquiry into performance rights organizations in the US, in an effort to answer “questions related to the increase in the number of PROs and the licensing revenue distribution practices of PROs.”[8] This investigation echoed concerns of collusion, but the PROs spoke out, accusing the Government of putting lower and disproportionate licenses for consumers above the rights of creators.[9] Songview might trigger a similar scenario, with the government aiming for transparency in music licensing, potentially taking control away from private companies to streamline and centralize copyright information.
Internationally, the Songview expansion will bring both challenges and successes in terms of global copyright harmonization and compliance. While fragmented data and ownership conflicts have hampered international licensing, a unified database will improve conflict resolution regarding ownership under Berne Convention principles[10], reducing cross-border litigation. Songview’s consolidated data will also align with the Berne Convention [CR1] itself, which expands a signatory country’s exclusive rights to other signatories, reinforcing the enforceability of exclusive rights and revitalizing the treaty during a time of doubt for both international music users and music creators.[11]
Songview raises concerns about global monopolies. Unified data boosts U.S. PROs’ bargaining in reciprocal agreements, increasing influence in organizations like the World Intellectual Property Organization and the International Confederation of Societies of Authors and Composers. However, it may also raise costs for PROs in developing countries, making local licenses costlier.
Nonetheless, Songview could modernize global rights registries and influence multilateral legislative reforms for better data consolidation. Additionally, a reliable global rights infrastructure can boost foreign direct investment in creative industries by increasing confidence in legal predictability and rights enforcement, providing reassurance about the future of the music industry.
Songview has some drawbacks, but it offers a more positive outlook for music and copyright law. It can reduce unintentional copyright infringements and conflicts. Centralization lowers administrative costs and reduces disputes. Smaller rights holders gain visibility and enforceability. To maximize growth, PRO registrants should enter data carefully, and international PROs should collaborate, especially with developing nations. International cooperation among PROs is essential for a fairer, sustainable global music ecosystem.
[1] Murray Sasten, In ‘Landmark’ Move, SESAC and GMR Join ASCAP and BMI’s ‘Songview’ Copyright Database, Expanding Platform to 38M+ Works, Music Business Worldwide (Sept. 29, 2025), https://www.musicbusinessworldwide.com/in-landmark-move-sesac-and-gmr-join-ascap-and-bmis-songview-copyright-database-expanding-platform-to-38m-works/.
[2] Search Result for “Baile Inovidable”, Songview, https://repertoire.bmi.com/Search/Search?Main_Search_Text=baile%20inolvidable&Main_Search=Title&Sub_Search=Please%20Select&Search_Type=all&View_Count=100&Page_Number=0
[3] Sasten, supra note 1.
[4] 17. U.S.C. § 106 (“the owner of copyright under this title has the exclusive rights to do and to authorize any of the following: (1) to reproduce the copyrighted work in copies or phonorecords; (2) to prepare derivative works based upon the copyrighted work; (3) to distribute copies or phonorecords of the copyrighted work to the public by sale or other transfer of ownership, or by rental, lease, or lending; (4) in the case of literary, musical, dramatic, and choreographic works, pantomimes, and motion pictures and other audiovisual works, to perform the copyrighted work publicly; […] and (6) in the case of sound recordings, to perform the copyrighted work publicly by means of a digital audio transmission.”).
[5] David Roberts, British Hit Singles & Albums 134 ( 19th ed., London: Guinness World Records Limited, 2006).
[6] Search Result for “Somewhere Over the Rainbow”, Songview, https://repertoire.bmi.com/Search/Search?Main_Search_Text=somewhere%20over%20the%20rainbow&Main_Search=Title&Search_Type=all&View_Count=100&Page_Number=0
[7] 15 U.S.C. § 1.
[8] Daniel Tecer, US Copyright Office Launches Inquiry into Performance Rights Organizations, Music Business Worldwide (Feb. 10, 2025), https://www.musicbusinessworldwide.com/us-copyright-office-launches-inquiry-into-performance-rights-organizations/.
[9] Tecer, supra note 6.
[10] Berne Convention, WIPO, https://www.wipo.int/en/web/treaties/ip/berne/index (last visited Oct. 10, 2025).
[11] Berne Convention art. 5, ¶ 1, opened for signature Sept. 9, 1886, 102 Stat. 2853, 331 U.N.T.S. 217 (joined by the United States on March 1, 1989); WIPO, supra note 10.