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BMI announces record-breaking revenue and royalty distributions with an all-time high of $1.471 billion to songwriters, composers, and publishers — $136 million more than last year.
BMI reported record-setting revenue and royalty distributions for its fiscal year ending June 30, 2022. The company announced it had administered an unprecedented $1.471 billion to its songwriters, composers, and publishers — its highest distribution ever at 10% and $136 million more than last year.
For the seventh consecutive year, BMI’s numbers represent the highest reported public performance distributions of any music rights organization worldwide.
“We had an exceptionally strong year thanks to the incredible popularity of the BMI repertoire, allowing us to deliver the highest royalty distributions in BMI’s history,” says Mike O’Neill, President and CEO of BMI. “Providing this financial stability to our outstanding creative community is a gratifying culmination of BMI’s efforts every day on behalf of our songwriters, composers, and publishers. Moving forward, we will continue to maximize the value of our affiliates’ music and ensure that our company is well positioned to deliver growth for our creators and copyright owners well into the future.”
BMI’s distribution total of $1.471 billion includes domestic and international royalties. In addition, that number includes distributions from direct deals between BMI publishers and digital service providers on behalf of whom BMI administers.
Those direct deals make up approximately 3% of BMI’s distribution at $49 million, $36 million less than the previous year. Certain licensing partners have decided to forego direct deals and return to BMI to handle their licensing needs, which accounts for the lower number.
Over 100,000 new songwriters, composers, and publishers joined BMI this year, bringing the company’s affiliate membership to over 1.3 million. New signings include Griff, Karol G, Kid Culture, The Kid LAROI, Troye Sivan, and many more. Additionally, agreements were extended with Anuel AA, A$AP Ferg, J Balvin, Metro Boomin, Doja Cat, Ramin Djawadi, Eminem, Omer Fedi, Tony Morales, Willie Nelson, Thomas Newman, Tayla Parx, Michael Pollack, Sting, Brian Tyler, and many others.
BMI processed approximately 2.23 trillion performances this year, up 13% over the previous year. Of that total, 2.21 trillion were digital performances, with over 260 billion of those being digital audio-visual performances. That’s a 7% increase over last year and highlights the continued growth of that sector. Lastly, BMI’s number of licensed musical works grew by 10%, bringing the total to 20.6 million this year.