August 2024
Dear Songwriter, Composer and Publisher,
I hope you’re having a wonderful summer with your friends and family. On our end, it’s been a dynamic few months and we’re excited to keep building on that positive momentum. With that, I’d like to take the opportunity to share a few key updates from this quarter.
As you know, we’re committed to enhancing our technology and the customer service experience we provide to you, which is why I’m thrilled to say we recently welcomed two senior executives who will help us further these initiatives. Our new Chief Technology Officer, Tom Kershaw, will lead BMI’s significant technological modernization, including efforts to manage the opportunities and challenges of AI and create new avenues to enhance your BMI experience through technology. In the newly-created role of Chief Transformation Officer, Justin Rohde will lead a number of important initiatives, including our efforts to develop new revenue sources to benefit our creative community. I’m very excited for the expertise and vision they both bring, which will be integral as we accelerate our plan to maximize royalties and improve our service to you.
The evolving field of AI continues to be a central focus for all of us in the music industry, and BMI is highly engaged on that front. We believe AI presents both challenges and opportunities, and ultimately, we must ensure that human creativity is protected and valued. We recently launched a special page on our website that highlights BMI’s position on AI, our advocacy efforts including the critical bills BMI is supporting, an FAQ section that addresses the questions we’ve been receiving from our creative community, as well as ways you can get involved. I hope you find this to be a valuable resource and recommend that you check back often, as our policies will be updated based on the latest copyright developments.
We also continue to fight for our affiliates in court to seek fair compensation for the use of your music. As you know, BMI prevailed in our rate-setting case against the live concert industry last year, and as expected, Live Nation, AEG & NACPA appealed the ruling. The appeal is currently in progress, and in May BMI made our argument to the appellate court in support of upholding the decision. We anticipate a ruling from the court in the coming months and will keep you updated.
In addition to your regular quarterly earnings, for those who are eligible, this distribution includes annual (2023 performances) for karaoke services, live Classical, sports leagues, theme parks and pay-per-view services.
We were very proud to honor our songwriters, composers and publishers at our award shows this quarter, including our Pop Awards, where we celebrated songwriter/producer benny blanco with BMI’s President’s Award, our Film, TV & Visual Media Awards, saluting composer Ramin Djawadi as a BMI Icon, and our Christian Awards, recognizing the best and brightest in the genre. As for industry accolades, congratulations to all our music creators who took home trophies at Premios Juventud, the Tony Awards, the Ivors and the ACM Awards. I’d also like to wish the best of luck to our composers nominated for Emmy Awards.
Moreover, I want to thank all our amazing songwriters who participated at this year’s LAMC, the BMI & Ryman Block Party at CMA Fest, our Rooftop on the Row series, our “How I Wrote That Song” panel in Guatemala and everyone who played our stage at Lollapalooza. The BMI Stage will also be returning to ACL Music Fest in October with another stellar lineup of BMI acts.
Next up, we’ll celebrate our incredible songwriters, producers and publishers at our R&B/Hip-Hop Awards, where we’ll be honoring Babyface with the BMI Icon Award and SZA with the BMI Champion Award. Our award season continues this fall with BMI’s Troubadour Awards, where we’ll be honoring John Oates, and London Awards, both of which will be fantastic tributes to our creative community.
Thank you for your continued trust in BMI. We’re very excited for all the opportunities that lie ahead for us to better serve you. Enjoy the rest of your summer!
Sincerely,
Mike O'Neill
President and Chief Executive Officer
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