BMG Rolls Out Royalty Portal App, Expects Artist Portal Before 2018

BMG has made its royalties portal, MyBMG, available as an app for Android and iOS for its songwriters.

The portal allows up-to-date, worldwide information on the value and source of income from songs worldwide. And before the end of the year, MyBMG is expected to incorporate BMG’s recording artist clients into one single publishing and recorded portal.

Engineered by BMG’s technology team, the app also sought consultation from a songwriter team including including Grammy-nominated Jenn Decilveo (“Rise Up”), Eurythmics co-founder Dave Stewart, and Broadway composer Maury Yeston.

Project leader Anke Becker said, “It was a very different experience to the usual process of software development. We were working hand-in-hand with songwriters trying to tease out exactly the information which is most important to them and then ensuring we present that data in as accessible a way as possible. The result we believe is the most user friendly royalties application on the market. We wanted to not only make the product the most transparent, but also make the process of creating and innovating the product transparent and inclusive.”

Based on the latest MyBMG 3.0 web portal launched in March this year, the app include features such as current period (pipeline) royalty information and highly intuitive analytics to give clients insights into their earnings by song, country and source, as well as trends.

Stewart said, “This is a great tool and a wonderful move forward towards helping songwriters understand where they stand, something that has been badly needed since the dawn of copyright. I am proud to be part of the BMG family making steps towards a better future for creatives and leading the way in fair trade for artists.”

Yeston said, “It is incredible how far we have come from the old days of the paper royalty statement. I am really pleased to have been given the opportunity to bring a real songwriter’s point of view to the design of the new BMG app. It’s the kind of collaborative approach I like about BMG. I am certain that the involvement of us songwriters will give a far more authentic and personal experience for users of the app.”

Sebastian Hentzschel, SVP Group Technology at BMG says, “MyBMG is the centrepiece of our drive to empower songwriters by giving them the information they need to manage their careers. The introduction of the mobile app is just a natural continuation to our unrelenting effort to service our artists with the transparency and fairness they deserve. We are going to continuously push out new, amazing features in the coming months and years.”