September 2016
Dear Songwriter, Composer and Publisher,
I am thrilled to announce that BMI reported the highest revenues and royalty distributions in our 76-year history for the fiscal year ended June 30, 2016. BMI generated total revenues of $1.060 billion, an increase of $47 million over last year, and distributed and administered $931 million in royalties. These figures represent the most reported public performance revenue and distributions by any music rights organization in the world.
Notably, building on last year’s record-breaking digital results, BMI achieved a 50% increase in revenue from digital sources. This reflects both the growing use of your music in this space, and BMI’s strides toward securing fair payment for you for its use. While BMI’s ongoing commitment to capturing new and traditional revenue streams contributed to the Company’s unprecedented accomplishments, our success is a direct result of your unrivaled creativity and the worldwide demand for your music.
During this dynamic and lucrative year, BMI continued to focus our efforts on advocating to protect your rights and royalties. As you know, BMI is fighting the Justice Department in Federal Court, challenging its interpretation of our consent decree as requiring 100% licensing. If implemented, 100% licensing would unfairly impact songwriters and composers, both creatively and financially. With that in mind, BMI and ASCAP have united forces against the DOJ’s interpretation, with BMI taking legal action and ASCAP pursuing legislative channels. More information on this joint effort can be found here. With regards to another important initiative, we encourage you to ask your Members of Congress to support the Songwriter Equity Act. If you have not yet done so, please take a moment to make your voice known through BMI’s online tool.
As previously noted, this distribution includes a higher rate structure for Pandora royalties as a result of our new multi-year licensing agreement with this service, which was effective January 2016. In other good news, in this distribution we have added Pandora as a service eligible for our Streaming Hits Bonus, recognizing the importance of this platform, its use in the marketplace, and most importantly, the popularity of your music on it. All BMI works performed on Pandora are eligible for this bonus, and if they qualify for it, the bonus amount is paid from funds designated for this purpose.
Also included in this distribution are annual royalty payments for license fees paid by certain pay-per-view channels, sports leagues, theme parks and the NCTA. Where applicable, you will also find the yearly Sirius XM true-up for 2015. In addition, your statement now contains new detail for Spotify, which we have broken out by service tiers to give you a more comprehensive view of that information.
Congratulations go out to our newest President’s Award recipient, Toni Braxton, as well as the other honorees of BMI’s R&B/Hip-Hop Awards, including Song of the Year winners Wiz Khalifa and Charlie Puth for “See You Again,” Songwriter of the Year Chris Brown, Producer of the Year Metro Boomin, and Publisher of the Year Universal Music Publishing Group. At BMI’s Christian Awards, we saluted For King and Country’s “Shoulder,” which earned Song of the Year, Matt Maher and Chris Tomlin, who were named Songwriters of the Year, and Word Music Publishing, which won Publisher of the Year. We look forward to celebrating our BMI London Award winners next month and honoring our country songwriters and publishers at the BMI Country Awards in November.
As a reminder, if you haven’t already done so, please go green with direct deposit. Additionally, the deadline to submit your BMI Live playlists for performances between January 1, 2016, and June 30, 2016, is September 30.
As we move forward, rest assured that BMI is stronger than ever, as highlighted by our record-breaking royalty distributions to you this year. Your affiliation with us is our top priority, and we are privileged to continue to protect your rights and maximize the value of your music while you continue to create the songs that electrify the world.
Sincerely,
Mike O'Neill
President and Chief Executive Officer