January 2015
Dear Songwriter, Composer and Publisher,
I hope you had a fabulous holiday season and that your new year is off to a creative start. On February 15 of this year, BMI will celebrate the 75th anniversary of our doors opening for business. On behalf of the entire BMI team, I want to thank you for giving us the opportunity to represent your works, as we continue our commitment in the digital age as the trusted broker between you and the diverse businesses that play your music.
In this distribution, we are pleased to include retroactive payments for performances on cable networks Galavision and EPIX. Galavision payments cover the performance periods 2006 through 2012 and EPIX payments are for fourth quarter 2009 through second quarter 2014. Also included in this distribution are retroactive payments for YouTube performances for calendar year 2013, as well as payments for the first two quarters of 2014. Additionally, this distribution includes retroactive payments for Internet services Pandora and Spotify for fourth quarter 2013, as well as the current quarter payments for these services.
In January of last year we announced that the royalty payment methodology used for calculating payments on network and cable television would be extended to local television (including the Fox and CW networks) and PBS payment calculations. BMI has now implemented the methodology change and the resulting payments are reflected in this distribution. All television payments are now derived from the same methodology, the details of which can be found on bmi.com in the section “How We Pay Royalties.”
As a reminder, BMI is no longer printing and sending detailed royalty statements through the mail. However, you can easily access your statement by activating your Online Services account that allows you to manage all of your BMI transactions in one place, which is safer, quicker and greener. If you have not signed up for direct deposit, BMI will continue to mail your royalty checks. To set up your Online Services account, go to http://www.bmi.com/Paperless and complete the requested information. You may also call 615-401-5555 with questions regarding BMI’s paperless initiative.
On the awards front, we’d like to congratulate our GRAMMY nominees, including those who received multiple nods, Sam Smith, Eric Church, Miranda Lambert and Jack White, and Song of the Year nominee, Hozier. We also salute our Golden Globe winners, John Legend and Common, who took Best Original Song for “Glory” from the film Selma, as well as Billboard Woman of the Year and Dick Clark Award for Excellence honoree, Taylor Swift. Kudos also go out to the BMI songwriters who took home the majority of the 2014 CMA and American Music Awards, including multiple AMA winner, One Direction.
Congratulations to all of our recent BMI Award winners: from the BMI Country Awards, BMI Icon Vince Gill, Songwriter of the Year Rhett Akins, Song of the Year recipient Ketch Secor and Publisher of the Year SONY/ATV Music Publishing Nashville; from BMI’s European Awards, BMI Icon Tim Rice, Song of the Year recipients Nile Rodgers, Thomas Bangalter,* Guy-Manuel de Homem-Christo* and Imagem Music, as well as Dance Award recipients Avicii* and Sony/ATV Music Publishing.
We anticipate that 2015 will be a very exciting, challenging and rewarding year for all. Please look to our website for news as BMI continues our pledge to advocate with the Department of Justice, Congress, and in the courts for the value of your music. I would like to thank all of our songwriters and composers who supported these ongoing efforts this past year, and look forward to calling on many more of you to help us this coming year.
* Thomas Bangalter and Guy-Manuel de Homem-Christo (PRS/SACEM); Avicii (STIM)
Sincerely,
Mike O'Neill
President and Chief Executive Officer
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