John LoFrumento, ASCAP CEO, to retire at the end of the year

John LoFrumento, after a career spent for the most part at ASCAP, announced he will retire at the end of the year in a press release.

LoFrumento had been ASCAP’s CEO for 17 years, and has spent a total of 33 years at the performance rights organisation, where he started out as an accountant. 

He is credited with growing ASCAP’s base from 70,000 to 520,000 members between 1997 and 2014 and with doubling the royalties distributed to members from $417 to $875 million. 

LoFrumento stated:

“When I became CEO in 1997, we set a course aimed at transforming ASCAP into a new kind of organization that would be ready to meet the demands of the 21st century, and I am so proud of what we have achieved. […] Through a commitment to innovation and continuous improvement in all areas of our operation, ASCAP has become the world’s most sophisticated and efficient music rights organization, home to more than 520,000 of the world’s greatest music creators. And I am able to retire with tremendous confidence in ASCAP’s future, knowing that the Board’s search for a new CEO is well underway.”

LoFrumento graduated at Hunter College and is a New York State Certified Accountant and prior to joining ASCAP worked at American Express. 

In his role at ASCAP he promoted initiatives such as the MusicPro Insurance, the first affordable insurance agency for music professionals and the ASCAP “I Create Music” EXPO.  

The last few years have not been trouble-free for LoFrumento, he had to navigate increasing pressure from digital services such as Pandora whilst managing the demands of major publishers who during 2013 and 2014 have threatened multiple times to leave the collection society altogether due to the limitations on making standalone deals with digital services. 

So far none of these threats have materialised, in large part because building an infrastructure that could rival ASCAP’s in collecting efficiently from - for example - retail stores, offices and restaurants that play music would require a huge investment and would likely take several years to develop. 

Still, US collection societies will be facing serious challenges in 2015 and beyond, so it will be interesting to see whether ASCAP decides to go for a digital native when replacing the CEO in order to better navigate these increasingly murky waters. 

 

(Andrea Leonelli)