BMI Annual Revenues Continue Upward

Broadcast Music, Inc.^® (BMI^®), the music rights management organization further extended its 20-year record of annually increasing revenue collections for its fiscal year ended June 30, 2011 with revenues in excess of $931 million. Revenues for 2010 totaled $917 million.

According to BMI it will distribute royalties of $796 million to the over 500,000 songwriters, composers and copyright owners it represents. Last year’s distribution tally was about $789 million.

BMI President & CEO Del Bryant said, “In addition to the strength of our repertoire, a key factor in our ability to grow revenues despite a challenging global economy is the enduring value of our core offering: the blanket license.  Securing unlimited public-performance rights to BMI’s entire repertoire of more than 6.5 million works with one stable agreement is as valuable for new media companies such as YouTube and Spotify as it is for our radio, television, cable network and general licensees.”

According to BMI, the repertoire was invigorated by global megahits from songwriters such as Lady Gaga, The Black Eyed Peas, Taylor Swift and Rihanna, and breakout success across a wide spectrum of genres from songwriter/artists such as urban sensation Nicky Minaj, British chanteuse Adele, urban/Latin phenomenon Pitbull and Nashville artists The Band Perry, Easton Corbin and Jason Aldean. These newer songwriter/artists build on a foundation laid by BMI icons such as The Eagles, ZZ Top, Paul Simon, The Rolling Stones, Snoop Dogg, Willie Nelson and Queen.

BMI’s press announcement claims it operates with an overhead among the lowest of any music rights organization in the world, an achievement made possible by the company’s long-term dedication to technology. In 2010, the organization processed almost 100 billion copyright transactions on behalf of its music creators, copyright owners and licensees.

BMI’s largest revenue category is Cable & Satellite which accounts for about 34% of collections. Radio is a close second contributing 30%.