November 2024
Dear Songwriter, Composer and Publisher,
I hope you’re doing well and getting ready for a wonderful Thanksgiving with your friends and family. On our end, I’m thrilled to say that this quarter we distributed another round of record-breaking royalties, marking our sixth consecutive quarter of distribution growth. As always, this is all thanks to your stellar music that is in-demand across platforms around the world. In addition, I’m happy to share several other important updates from this very productive quarter.
In September, we were pleased to announce that Martijn Tel joined BMI as our new Chief Financial Officer. He brings a wealth of experience and is overseeing BMI’s financial operations to help ensure we continue to fulfill our mission. Along with our other recently named executives, Tom Kershaw, Chief Technology Officer, and Justin Rohde, Chief Transformation Officer, Martijn will have an integral role as we continue to grow your royalties, enhance the service we provide and explore new sources of revenue to benefit our affiliates.
BMI also continued our advocacy efforts on your behalf, as we will always do when we believe your music is being undervalued. After attempting to negotiate in good faith with SiriusXM for over two years, they remained insistent on underpaying the creators of the music that drives their business. In fact, their proposal doesn’t reflect SiriusXM’s use of BMI repertoire and falls well below what is in the best interests of our affiliates. As a result, BMI filed a rate court action to determine fair and appropriate licensing fees. Rest assured that we will continue to fight for however long it takes to ensure your music receives the value it deserves.
On the AI front, BMI was excited to partner with BMAC (Black Music Action Coalition) at our LA office for a conversation about the opportunities and challenges AI technologies present to the creative community. The panel of music and AI industry leaders had a thought-provoking discussion, with a consensus supporting the ethical use of AI and the need for the industry to come together to protect human creativity. Similarly, on Capitol Hill, BMI endorsed the NO FAKES Act introduced in the House of Representatives to protect the voice and visual likenesses of music creators from AI-generated deepfakes and cloning without their consent.
As you know, enhancing the service we provide to you is a major focus for us, and to further strengthen those efforts, we recently conducted two affiliate surveys to ensure we’re delivering meaningful support. One survey looked at what tools songwriters and composers might be interested in to help them be better music creators. The other gauged how we’re currently doing with our customer service. Both surveys saw high engagement, and we’re working to implement the feedback we received to improve your BMI experience.
In addition to your regular royalties, for those eligible, this quarter’s distribution includes first-time payments from new digital sources, including Roblox from 2020 through 2023 and JibJab for 2023. On the licensing front, BMI notably renewed our agreement with Apple Music, establishing a fee that appropriately reflects BMI’s leading market share. Moving forward, we’re very pleased that Apple Music will continue to be a valued partner.
Throughout the quarter, BMI songwriters and composers were recognized for their incomparable creative work. Congratulations to all our award winners at the BMI R&B/Hip-Hop Awards, where Babyface was named a BMI Icon and SZA received the BMI Champion Award. Kudos also go out to John Oates, who was celebrated with the BMI Troubadour Award. Moreover, I’d like to congratulate all our affiliates who received accolades across the industry, including our winners at the Emmy Awards, DOVE Awards and Billboard’s Latin Music Awards. Best of luck to all our affiliates nominated at the Latin GRAMMY Awards, the CMA Awards and the GRAMMY Awards.
Looking ahead, I’m excited to celebrate the outstanding success of our country community at the BMI Country Awards, where we’ll name Randy Owen our BMI Icon. In December, we’ll salute our UK and European songwriting community at the BMI London Awards and pay tribute to Graham Lyle as a BMI Icon, as well.
On behalf of the entire BMI team, I want to thank all of you for trusting us to protect your rights and represent your incredible music. Enjoy an amazing holiday season, and we wish you a happy and healthy new year!
Sincerely,
Mike O'Neill
President and Chief Executive Officer
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