BMI Rakes in Record $1 Billion-Plus Revenues

Broadcast Music, Inc., which provides music rights management for over 10 million creative works, said it had record-breaking revenue and royalty distributions of $1.013 billion for the fiscal year ended June 30.

Of that, $877 million went to its songwriters, composers and music publishers members, up 4.5% over last year and also a record.

Revenue from media licensing—radio and TV—was also a record at $484 million, with cable and satellite accounting for the largest share of that for the second year in a row (BMI also collects revenue from bars, hotels, gyms, restaurants and other venues).

BMI also scored its highest digital revenue returns at over $100 million, including monies from Amazon, Apple, Netflix, Pandora, Spotify and YouTube.

“These are phenomenal results for BMI and underscore the value we bring to our community of songwriters, composers and publishers,” said BMI president Mike O'Neill in announcing the results.

The only downer was international revenue, off 5% to $292 million, which BMI attributed to a strengthening dollar and the resulting lower foreign exchange rate for those revenues.

BMI is a nonprofit, with 87% of the revenue going to its members.

John Eggerton

Contributing editor John Eggerton has been an editor and/or writer on media regulation, legislation and policy for over four decades, including covering the FCC, FTC, Congress, the major media trade associations, and the federal courts. In addition to Multichannel News and Broadcasting + Cable, his work has appeared in Radio World, TV Technology, TV Fax, This Week in Consumer Electronics, Variety and the Encyclopedia Britannica.