February 2024
Dear Songwriter, Composer and Publisher,
I hope you’re doing well and having a wonderful start to your year. I’m very pleased to update you on what’s been happening at BMI this quarter, starting off with the exciting news that New Mountain Capital has completed its acquisition of BMI.
This is the beginning of an incredible new chapter that will provide us with tremendous opportunities to build greater value for you and ensure your long-term success. As you know, I’ll continue to lead BMI, along with the company’s leadership team, and as always, we remain guided by your best interests. New Mountain believes in BMI’s unwavering mission, which is to serve our creative community and grow the value of your music, and with their support we’re now able to accelerate our growth plan to maximize your royalty distributions and improve the services we provide. We have several key projects coming up and I look forward to sharing more detail soon.
Moreover, I previously mentioned that as part of the sale, and in recognition of the creativity of the songwriters, composers and publishers they have had the privilege to represent, BMI’s former shareholders have allocated $100 million of the proceeds to affiliates. We expect these funds to be paid this spring, and while it’s not a distribution of royalties, it will be in keeping with BMI’s distribution methodologies, which are based on performance levels over a set period of time.
I’m also thrilled to report that this distribution broke the record we set last quarter and is now the largest ever in our company’s history, highlighting the unmatched popularity of your music and BMI’s commitment to increasing its value. Notably, in addition to your regular royalties this quarter, those who are eligible will see payments for performances on Twitch for 2022.
On the legislative front, BMI recently endorsed the No AI FRAUD Act. This bill aims to establish federal protections for voice and likeness, which we believe are needed to protect songwriters, composers and artists from AI-generated deepfakes and voice clones. This legislation is an important step toward safeguarding your essential contributions to the industry. I’ll keep you posted on the progress of this bill and other initiatives around AI and copyright, as this is clearly one of the biggest policy issues facing creators and our industry.
Once again, it was an incredible quarter for our affiliates who received prestigious industry accolades across genres. Congratulations go out to all our talented songwriters and composers who won GRAMMY Awards, Latin GRAMMYS, Golden Globes and Primetime Creative Arts Emmys. I’d also like to acknowledge all our nominees for the Premio Lo Nuestro, BAFTAs, Brit Awards and Academy Awards, and wish you the best of luck. Additionally, I want to thank our composers and songwriters who participated in BMI’s panel “Music & Film: The Creative Process” at the Sundance Film Festival. Looking ahead, we’ll have amazing BMI performances at SXSW, and we can’t wait for our own award season to start, kicking off in March with the BMI Latin Awards.
It’s an extremely exciting time and we’re honored to be on this journey with the world’s best music creators and copyright owners. I’m very optimistic about all the future holds and am looking forward to another great year together. Thank you for your continued trust.
Sincerely,
Mike O'Neill
President and Chief Executive Officer
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