Songview is a database that ASCAP and BMI share. They launched it in December 2020. Before that, each one kept its own list and nobody could see both at once. Now anyone who wants to use your music looks in one place. It is free, and you can look too.
✅ What the green check mark actually certifies
When a song is reconciled it gets a green check mark. That mark means one very specific thing: ASCAP and BMI hold exactly the same information about that song. Same writers, same publishers, same shares.
❓ So what is unreconciled?
It is simpler than it sounds: that song has not gone through the process yet, or the two societies do not agree. There is no green mark. And it does not mean you did anything wrong.
- Someone registered the song and someone else did not — or registered it differently.
- The shares do not add up to 100%. A piece is missing, or there is one too many.
- A third society is involved — SESAC or GMR, for example. Their shares show up as “Other”, so the ASCAP and BMI shares no longer reach 100% on their own.
💸 Why this is money, not paperwork
Think about who pays. A radio station, a bar, a streaming service. They pay a society, and the society splits the money according to what it has on file. If what they have on file does not match between them, one of two things happens: the money sits still while it gets sorted out, or it gets split using the data they have — which may not be yours.
Nobody warns you. No letter arrives. You simply get paid less, or later, and you do not know why.
🔎 How to check it yourself, today, for free
- Open the Songview search — it is on BMI’s site and on ASCAP’s. No account needed.
- Search by your writer name.
- Open a song and look at two things: is there a green mark? and do the shares add up to 100%?
If the mark is missing, or the numbers do not add up, you have found something worth checking.
⚠️ The catch: the official docs stop there
We checked. The official FAQ defines reconciled and unreconciled — and that is where it stops. It does not explain what to do if your song has no mark, or who to write to.
Songview is not where anything gets fixed. It collects what each society sends it, compares it and sends it back. So the correction happens at your own society — the one you are affiliated with. If your co-writer is with the other one, they have to fix their half. Nobody can touch the other person’s side.
That is why so many of these songs sit unfixed for years: it takes two people who may not even be in touch any more.
📋 What to have ready before you write to anyone
- The exact title as registered — not what you call it.
- The work number from your society.
- Who wrote what share, and whether you have it in writing.
- If there is a publisher, who handles it.
With that, the conversation takes minutes. Without it, it takes months.