Publishing
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The Copyright Royalty Board’s final determination for royalty rates for making and distributing phonorecords for the 2018-2022 term (aka Phonorecords III) were published by the Federal Register late last week, following a legal review — and close check for typos — by the office of Register of Copyrights Shira Perlmutter.
The majority of the rates determination is no surprise. Since the official remand by an Appeals Court in October 2020 — which followed a March 2019 appeal by digital services of the CRB’s February 2019 rates determination for the 2018-2022 term — the CRB judges had been wrestling with different aspects of the complicated mechanical rate formula cited by the appeal courts, with various aspects of the rates determination coming out in dribs and drabs over the last eight months.
As is already known, the CRB judges stayed with the escalating rate structure for the all-in percentage of revenue prong, which covers both mechanical and performance royalties, for on-demand streaming for the 2018-2022 period.
(The 21% of total content cost is for performance royalties are determined by a separate process but whatever was agreed to be paid to ASCAP, BMI and the other performance royalty organization is subtracted from the all-in bucket in one step of the process to determine one of the mechanical rates bucket.)
That rate structure escalated from 10.5% in the prior five-year term of 2013-2017 to 11.2% in 2018, 12.3% in 2019, 13.4% in 2020; 14.2% in 2021, and 15.1% in 2022. But in moving to the other all-in prong — the total cost of content prong, i.e. what the services pay the record labels — the CRB judges re-installed the ceiling, which prevents publishers and songwriters from automatically being rewarded when labels and artists negotiations higher rates from the services; and the judges abandoned the earlier escalating rate structure from its initial 2019 determination for the total cost of content prong, which similarly rose in annual increments from 21% of what’s paid to labels to 26.1% over the five year term. Instead, the judges stuck with 21% of total content cost for the full five-year term — the same percentage it had been in the previous five years.
(This article mainly uses the percentages from what’s known as the stand-alone portable streaming model, i.e. the main on-demand streaming vehicle, which at Spotify is known as the paid subscriber tier. The ad-supported rate is 22% of what’s paid to labels.)
In other moves, the CRB stuck with 9.1 cents per song for physical and downloads and 24 cents per ringtone for Phonorecord III. In Phonorecords IV, for 2023-2027, the royalty rate for ringtones would remain the same but the per song rate will earn 12 cents per track or 2.31 cents per minute of playing time or fraction thereof, whichever amount is larger for physical products and permanent downloads. Also, that rate will be subject to an annual cost-of-living adjustment.
Before an Appeals Court remanded a significant part of the CRB rate determination for 2018-2022 back to the CRB, digital streaming services were adhering to the structure of the initial determination which means that for some 33 months the formula applied the higher rates for the total cost of content prong without a ceiling. As such, industry sources speculate that some digital services overpaid during that period — and Billboard estimates that they might have over paid by $50 million.
But after the remand most services reverted back to the 2013-2017 rates of which used the headline rate of 10.5% of revenue, and consequently most industry financial sources suggest that the service underpaid from October 2020 through December 2022. Consequently, Billboard estimates that digital services collectively might owe $200 million to $250 million for the latter period. Looking at the two period, with the earlier one 2018-2020 partially offsetting the later period of 2021-2022, that could mean a $200 million windfall for publishers and songwriters.
Now that this has all been settled, the Mechanical Licensing Collective—working with required updated information from the digital services—has six months from the Aug. 10 date to make adjustments in what has been paid and what may still be owed from 2021 and 2022, the two years the MLC has been in operation. It will also have to rectify any under or over payments for unclaimed and unpaid royalties from the earlier periods before it began operations— a responsibility it was handed as part of the Music Modernization Act.
But besides the unpaid royalties, any needed adjustments to the rest of the payments made to publishers and songwriters during the 2018-2020 period will be handled by the digital services, likely with the help of their third party vendors, i.e. Music Reports Inc and the Harry Fox Agency.
The Phonorecords IV rate determination for 2023-2027 preceded the final determination for Phonorecords III, as it was published in the Federal Register on Dec. 16, 2022.
Round Hill Music has acquired the remaining share of Big Loud Shirt’s catalog of music publishing rights, bringing Round Hill Music’s ownership of Big Loud Shirt’s music catalog to 100%. Round Hill previously acquired a share of the Big Loud Shirt catalog in 2014.
Round Hill has also acquired 50% of the writer’s income streams from songwriter/producer Craig Wiseman, the founder/owner of Big Loud Shirt.
The Big Loud Shirt catalog comprises more than 1,200 songs recorded by artists including Blake Shelton, Dierks Bentley, Carrie Underwood, Faith Hill, Luke Bryan and Tim McGraw. The majority date prior to 2015, with 75% of them at least seven years old.
According to a press release announcing the deal, streaming income generated from Big Loud Shirt’s catalog increased approximately 200% from 2017 to 2021.
The deal brings new rights into Round Hill’s portfolio and expands its existing interests in songs including McGraw’s “Live Like You Were Dying” (co-written by Wiseman), Underwood’s “Before He Cheats” and “Blown Away” and Strait’s “I Saw God Today.”
According to a release, this acquisition also increases Round Hill’s exposure to the country music market, which as of December 31, 2022, comprised 11% of their portfolio.
Round Hill Music CEO Josh Gruss said in a statement, “Craig Wiseman and his publishing company, Big Loud Shirt, have produced some of the highest profile, most recognizable and enduring country music hits of the last three decades, bringing them firmly in line with the song profile of the Company’s portfolio. We have a terrific working relationship with Craig, who we have known for many years, and are deeply familiar with these songs. This investment not only enables us to further increase Round Hill Music’s exposure to the fast-growing Country music genre but also provides an exciting opportunity for us to leverage our in-house platform to manage these incredible songs, maximizing their income streams and further growing their value.”
Wiseman added, “I have known and been working with Round Hill for a decade and I’m thrilled to be expanding our relationship by sharing these incredible pieces of art with them. I know they will manage these songs carefully and effectively, identifying creative opportunities to bring them to new audiences worldwide.”
For roughly half a century, John Fogerty had tried to recover the rights to dozens of hits he wrote for Creedence Clearwater Revival. At the age of 77, he had almost given up hope, when he and his wife, Julie Fogerty, who also works as his manager, realized they were on the cusp of a second chance thanks to the Copyright Act of 1976.
That law–specifically sections 304(c) and 203–are intended to give musicians, songwriters and other creators a second bite at the apple by enabling them to recapture the copyrights to compositions and recordings, in the United States only, that they may have signed away earlier in their careers. Songs dating from before 1978 can revert to their creator or heirs after 56 years, and songs from after 1978 can revert to the creator or heirs after 35 years, provided they file the proper paperwork.
Realizing that many of John’s songs were nearing that 56-year threshold, Julie reached a deal with Concord in January that returned majority control to her husband of worldwide publishing rights to over 65 Creedence classics.
Although clearing the legal and corporate hurdles to recapture rights can be significant and compromises are often negotiated, some industry insiders say that same law could lead to artists putting up for sale their newly recovered catalogs in a way that stokes the already hot market for publishing and recording rights.
“You have this interesting confluence of the big, big moment in classic rock, and you’re also getting to the 35-year window for late-1980s songs,” says Concord CEO Bob Valentine, who mentioned the mutually “happy outcome” with John during a discussion about works from the late ’60s and late ’80s approaching their reversion dates.
“Those are two huge windows for multiple genres,” he adds. “It makes the [catalog investment] market really interesting at this moment in time.”
Clearing the hurdles — both within the law and presented by music companies — to recapture rights is complicated, but there is some precedent to support this optimism. In 2013, when the first wave of post-1978 works approached the 35-year threshold, Billboard reported that nearly 20 of the world’s most famous songwriters had filed termination notices with the U.S. Copyright Office, including Paul McCartney, Bob Dylan, Brian Wilson, Gerry Goffin & Carole King, Willie Nelson, Daryl Hall & John Oates and the estates of Buddy Holly and Bo Diddley.
Lisa Alter, a founding partner at Alter Kendrick & Baron in New York and an expert in rights reversion negotiations, says a new surge has already begun. “Commerce has definitely increased in this area,” she says. “It will continue to increase, and at some point, maybe 10-plus years down the line, things will start to level off.”
Sources cautioned, however, that rights reversions — particularly for master recordings — rarely work out so cleanly as the law implies, and that likely only a fraction of the hit song catalogs reaching the 35-year or 56-year milestones will revert to their owners.
While John was able to regain a majority share of his worldwide publishing rights, Concord retains the Creedence master recordings in its catalog and, as of January, was still administering the rocker’s share of the publishing catalog. (Concord obtained Creedence’s recordings through the 2004 acquisition of Fantasy Records.) While John regained only publishing rights this year, Concord reinstated and improved his artist royalties shortly after the acquisition.
A key argument used by industry observers who predict the spate of copyright reversions will superheat the catalog investment market in the coming years is that superstar artists and songwriters who were behind hit records in the ’60s, ’70s and ’80s are aging and may be considering selling their rights to pass down a simpler inheritance to their heirs.
Before that can happen, however, artists and songwriters — or their heirs, if they are deceased — are required to serve the U.S. Copyright Office and their current music publisher or record company a termination notice at least two years before the songs turn 35 or 56, and they cannot enter any agreement with a third party before their current contract is terminated. Whoever has been holding those rights has the right of first refusal to acquire them.
While that option often leads the incumbent rights holder to negotiate new deals with the artists seeking to recover their rights, Alter says that since 1978, publishers have usually acquiesced when artists seek to reclaim their publishing rights, and labels have largely sought to block attempts to reclaim sound recording rights.
“There has been almost universal opposition on the part of the labels to the [termination] notices,” she says, with labels often arguing the notice was not validly served or the artist or songwriter produced the song as a work for hire. “While some artists have successfully gotten their rights back, in the majority of cases, the record label has renegotiated the leases.”
Many artists have attempted to sue major labels for their responses to termination notices — so far almost always unsuccessfully. One closely watched case was brought by “Missing You” singer John Waite, who sought class action status for hundreds of artists to sue Universal Music Group to regain control of their masters. The class action request was denied in January after a judge said there were complex and unique issues raised by each artist’s relationship with UMG that could not be resolved on an “aggregate basis.”
Round Hill Music co-founder Josh Gruss, who was an early investor in songs as an asset class, says he questions whether the rights reversion trend will result in more copyrights coming to the investment market.
“It’s really hard for significant recordings to fall out of the major-label system,” he says.
That said, Gruss acknowledges that attractive copyrights that have reverted to an artist or songwriter frequently come up for outside investment. For example, songwriter Eddie Schwartz, who wrote 100% of Pat Benatar’s 1980 top 10 Billboard Hot 100 hit “Hit Me With Your Best Shot,” reclaimed his publishing rights to the song in 2015 and sold them to Round Hill. Gruss says they’ve both been happy with the result.
When it comes to master recordings, however, Gruss agrees with Alter’s assessment.
“The labels have always done a masterful job of not letting the recordings revert,” he says.
With the launch of a music publishing venture, Simon Cowell returns to the business where he honed his own talents in pop.
Unveiled this week, SYCO Publishing, a collaboration between Syco Entertainment and Universal Music Publishing Group, will sign and develop songwriters and catalogs that will be administered and supported exclusively through UMPG globally, reps say.
At launch, SYCO Publishing is home to Lucy Spraggan and John Samuel Gerhart, as well as song catalog from Camila Cabello, James Arthur, Grace VanderWaal, Fifth Harmony and others.
The record executive, TV personality and current judge on America’s Got Talent got his break in publishing.
“There is nothing more important than a great song. I started my career in music publishing,” comments Cowell on the unveiling of his new venture. Paying tribute to Mike McCormack, managing director of UMPG U.K., and the music publishing giant, Cowell says he’s been given “the chance to build a music publishing company. They are a brilliant company and share my wish to work with amazing songwriters.”
SYCO Publishing will also create new opportunities for its writers to work across Cowell’s network of media formats and projects, reads a statement.
“Simon has been a good friend for decades and I’m thrilled he has finally decided to launch a publishing business with UMPG,” adds McCormack. “His track record is incredible – he’s always had great instincts and passion for outstanding songs, and brings incredible value to every songwriter, producer and catalog he works with.”
It’s the second songwriting-focused project in the past year that has brought together Cowell’s entertainment venture and Universal Music Group. In 2022, both companies got behind StemDrop, a creative platform for musical collaboration, curation and artist discovery, which launched exclusively with TikTok and Samsung, by providing users with access to music “stems,” the isolated components of a song, from an exclusive track, which creators could then use to record and share their own versions.
Syco Entertainment is the independent company which created and owns TV formats such as “Got Talent” and “The X Factor”.
CTM Outlander has acquired Dutch music label and publishing house Strengholt Music Group. Founded in 1928, Stengholt was originally part of European entertainment powerhouse Strengholt B.V. and was considered an early pioneer in the Dutch music business. The catalog contains over 100 Dutch No. 1 hits, including works composed by Boudewijn de Groot, Lennaert Nijgh, Ramses Shaffy, Pierre Kartner, Hans van Hemert, Ferry Corsten, Radboud Miedema, John Ewbank, Eric van Tijn and Jochem Fluitsma, and including “Engelbewaarder” by Marco Schuitmaker. (The management and rights activities of Purple Eye Publishing and Purple Eye ENtertainment are excluded from this transaction.)
Grammy Songwriter of the Year nominee Nija Charles and Legion founder Christian McCurdy have launched Anomaly, a new publishing company. Already, the pair has signed Jack Rochon, Serg Dior and Tre-Von Waters to the new publishing house. To date, the company is not partnered with another publisher but is in the process of finalizing a deal now.
Sol Was has signed a worldwide publishing administrative agreement with Warner Chappell Music‘s Wallace Joseph and Gabz Landman. With recent credits on Beyoncé’s Renaissance, this marks the up-and-coming songwriter and producer’s first-ever publishing deal. He is managed by David Silberstein, Jeremy Levin, Haley Evans and Laura Higbee of Mega House Music.
Spirit Music Nashville has signed Tyler Reeve to a worldwide co-publishing agreement. A writer for Luke Combs, Eric Church, Chris Young, Scotty McCreery and Brett Young, his accomplishments include winning BMI’s Country Song of the Year and multiple multi-platinum certifications.
peermusic Nashville has signed songwriter and engineer Nick Brophy to an exclusive worldwide publishing deal. A songwriter to stars like Jason Aldean, Hootie & the Blowfish, Rascal Flatts and engineers to Avril Lavigne, The Rolling Stones and Everclear — Brophy has the “ability to write across genres with impact in Nashville and into global markets,” says Michael Knox, president of peermusic Nashville.
Downtown Music Publishing has signed Raja Kumari, a Grammy-nominated singer-songwriter and rapper, to a global administration agreement. As part of the deal, Downtown will administer Kumari’s debut album The Bridge along with her collaboration with John Legend for Johnny Walker India. The deal also includes administration for all future writing credits during the deal term.
Angry Mob Music Group presented a five-day writing camp from June 26-30 in Downtown LA, drawing over 30 writers, artists and producers from various cultural backgrounds. Called The New Normal Writing Camp, it was founded by Ralph Torrefranca, senior director of a&r at Angry Mob, and was created to bring together underrepresented songwriters and to encourage new ways of thinking. Of the attendees, 50% were women producers and 70% were women artists and writers.
Distiller Music Group has announced a new co-publishing agreement with songwriter/producer Gil Lewis (Leah Kate, Nina Nesbitt, Icona Pop, Cheat Codes). The deal is an agreement with Stellar Songs and part of a wider partnership that Distiller Music Group is developing with Tim Blacksmith and Danny D’s publishing company. It will be administered by Warner Chappell Music.
Criminal Records, a London-based indie label, has launched a new publishing arm and North American partnership with Purley Sounds. With diverse signees, ranging from ska-punk to punk, Criminal Records hopes the new move will “further empower independent artists.”
Warner Chappell Music has signed Laufey to a global publishing agreement. The Icelandic-Chinese artist is considered one of the brightest new stars in jazz, re-popularizing the genre for Gen Z. The deal announcement arrives just ahead of her sophomore album Bewitched, arriving Sept. 8 via AWAL, and her upcoming performance with the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra at the Ford Ampitheatre in Los Angeles.
Laufey’s songs have always fared well on TikTok, in part because the singer is active in sharing her work on the app — but in the last month, her May single “From the Start,” began to hit true virality. With a bossa nova-inspired groove and wistful lyrics, fans began creating videos to a sped-up version of the single and that activity has led to real streams on Spotify, Apple, Amazon and other DSPs. U.S. on-demand streams for the week ending July 14, when the song began to take off, went up 50% from the previous week’s total and its streams climbed to 644,000 per day.
Laufey said of the new signing that she is “honored to join the ranks of some of the most iconic songwriters and artists in history at Warner Chappell. Gabz, David, Ryan, Guy, Carianne, and the rest of the team at Warner Chappell have been fervent songwriter advocates for years, and I’m elated to call the company my new publishing partner.”
Gabz Landman, vp of a&r, and David Goldsen, vp and head of a&r of Australia for Warner Chappell Music said in a joint statement: “At Warner Chappell, we pride ourselves on working with the most talented storytellers in the world, so Laufey is the perfect addition to our roster. Laufey’s innate musicality, lyrical ingenuity, deep relationship with her fans, and world class live show are just a few factors that make it no surprise her star is rising. We’re thrilled to be working with such an exceptional, generational talent, and thank Laufey, Max Gredinger, and Harry Roberts for trusting us at this exciting point in her career.”
“Laufey is a gifted songwriter who has a distinct sound that balances classic elements with modern songwriting, and her music has been resonating with audiences all around the world. She’s exposing jazz and classical music to a whole new generation of fans, and we’re incredibly excited to welcome her to the Warner Chappell family,” added Ryan Press, president of North America at Warner Chappell Music.
Argentine star Maria Becerra has signed an exclusive administration deal with Warner Chappell Music (WCM), Billboard has learned. The agreement comes three months after Becerra signed with Warner Music Latina in a joint venture with 300 Entertainment, who she’s been signed to since 2020.
“Thanks to the entire Warner Chappell team for 100% trusting and empowering me and my team,” Becerra said in a statement. “I’m so thrilled and happy to officially be joining the family and continuing to grow! And a huge shoutout to my managers Jose Levy, Natanael Real, and Armando Lozano for believing in me; my creative director Julian Levy; my music producer Xross; and everyone, for always supporting my music vision and making me trust myself even more.”
Since her breakout year in 2019 — when she released her EP 222 — Becerra has so far scored three entries on the Billboard‘s Hot Latin Songs chart, including her hit “Qué Más Pues?” with J Balvin, as well as two top 10 entries on Latin Airplay (the No. 1 hit “Te Espero” with Prince Royce and “Éxtasis” with Manuel Turizo at No. 9), and five entries on Latin Rhythm Airplay.
In 2021, she released her debut album Animal featuring collabs with Cazzu, Tiago PZK and Becky G, to name a few. The set earned her a Latin Grammy nomination for best urban music album. That same year, Becerra was nominated for best new artist at the Latin Grammys. In May, the 23-year-old artist received the visionary award at the inaugural Billboard Latin Women in Music gala. Becerra’s latest album La Nena de Argentina — her most multifaceted album to date — garnered more than 301 million plays on Spotify alone.
“I’ve been following Maria since she erupted onto the scene, and she continues to surprise me with her incredible and relentless artistic growth. We’re very happy to finally have her in our Warner Chappell Music family,” expressed Gustavo Menéndez, president, U.S. Latin & Latin America, WCM.
“Maria has become one of the most outstanding and versatile artists and songwriters in the music scene, and it is a true honor to have a great ally like Warner Chappell to continue developing her career globally,” said her manager Jose Levy. “Thank you to the entire team for their commitment – we’re excited to face these challenges and reach new goals together, accompanying Maria in everything she sets out to do.”
When a young Evan Bogart tried his hand at writing a few pop songs for a girl group he managed, he had no idea he would score one of the biggest Billboard hits of 2006.
After the act disbanded, Bogart decided to pitch the songs to labels. One of them landed with a then-fledgling pop artist named Rihanna, who was signed to Def Jam Recordings. Bogart’s song, “S.O.S.,” not only broke Rihanna — it jumped 33 spots to No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 in a single week — it minted his songwriting career.
Multiple hits later, Bogart runs his own publishing company and label, Seeker Music, where he encourages his songwriters to create “pitch records” — songs written by songwriters, recorded as demos, and then shopped to various artists. It’s a common practice that increasingly employs a new — albeit controversial — hack: artificial intelligence voice synthesis, which mimics the voice of the artist being pitched.
Bogart says the technology helps his roster better tailor pitches to talent and enables the artists to envision themselves on the track. At a time when acts are demanding a weightier role in the song creation process, AI voice generation offers a creative way to get their attention.
“Producers and writers have always tried to mimic the artists’ voice on these demos anyway,” says attorney Jason Berger, whose producer and songwriter clients are beginning to experiment with AI vocals for their pitches. “I feel like this technology is very impactful because now you can skip that step with AI.”
Traditionally, songwriters will either sing through the track themselves for a demo recording or employ a demo singer. In cases when writers have a specific artist in mind, a soundalike demo singer may be employed to mimic the artist’s voice for about $250-500 per cut. (One songwriter manager said there are a few in particular who make good money imitating Maroon 5’s Adam Levine, Justin Bieber, and other top tier acts. In general, however, nearly all demo singers hold other jobs in music like background singing, writing, producing or engineering.)
The emerging technology doesn’t generate a melody and vocal from scratch but instead maps the AI-generated tone of the artist’s voice atop a prerecorded vocal. Popular platforms include CoversAI, Uberduck, KitsAI, and Grimes’ own voice model, which she made available for public use in May. Still, these models yield mixed results.
Some artists’ voices might be easier for AI to imitate because they employ Auto-Tune or other voice-processing technology when they record, normalizing the voice and giving it an already computerized feel. A large catalog of recordings also helps because it offers more training material.
“Certain voices sound really good, but others are not so good,” Bogart says, but he adds that he actually “likes that it sounds a little different from a real voice. I’m not trying to pretend the artist is truly on the song. I’m just sending people a robotic version of the artist to help them hear if the song is a good fit.”
Training is one of the most contentious areas of generative AI because the algorithms are often fed copyrighted material, like sound recordings, without owners’ knowledge or compensation. The legality of this is still being determined in the United States and other countries, but any restrictions that arise probably won’t apply to pitch records because they aren’t released commercially.
“I really haven’t had any negative reactions,” Bogart says of his efforts. “No one’s said ‘did you just pitch your song with my artists’ voice on it to me?’”
Stefán Heinrich, founder and CEO of CoversAI creator mayk.it, says voice re-creation tools could even democratize the songwriting profession altogether, allowing talented unknown writers a chance at getting noticed. “Until now, you had to have the right connections to pitch your songs to artists,” he says. “Now an unknown songwriter can use the power of the technology and the reach of TikTok to show your skills to others and get invited into those rooms.”
While Nick Jarjour — founder and CEO of JarjourCo, advisor to mayk.it and former global head of song management at Hipgnosis — supports the ethical use of this technology, he believes that the industry should take a different approach to applying AI voices on pitches. “The solution is letting the artist who is receiving the demos decide to put their AI voice onto it themselves,” he says, as opposed to publishers and writers sending over demos with the AI treatment already provided. To do this, artists can create their own personal voice models that are more accurate and tailored to their needs, much like Grimes has already done, and then apply those to pitches they receive.
Still, as Berger says, “this is evolving by the day.” Most publishers haven’t put this technology into every day practice yet, but now more are discussing the idea publicly. At the Association of Independent Music Publishers (AIMP) annual conference in New York City last month, Katie Fagan, head of A&R for Prescription Songs Nashville, said that she recently saw AI vocals on a pitch record for the first time. One of her writers had tested AI to add the voice of Cardi B to the demo. “It could be an interesting pitch tool in the future,” she said, noting that this technology could be used even more simply to change the gender of the demo singer when pitching the same demo to a mix of male and female artists.
“I really don’t see why you wouldn’t pitch a song with a voice that sounds as close as possible to the artist, given the goal is helping the artist hear themselves on the track,” says Berger. “My guess is that people will get used to this pretty quick. I think in six months we are going to have even more to talk about.”
In the more distant future, Bogart wonders what might happen if, as the technology advances, pitch records become the final step in the creative process. “What would be really scary is if someone asks the artist, ‘Hey, do you want to cut this?’ And they reply, ‘I don’t have to, that’s me.’”
The Jenni Rivera Estate has signed a global deal with Universal Music Publishing Group to administer the publishing rights for Jenni Rivera’s global catalog, Billboard has learned. “I’m so excited about this new partnership with Universal Music Publishing. It’ll bring great achievements for my mom’s legacy and for Jenni Rivera Enterprises,” said Jacqie Rivera, CEO of Jenni […]
BMI is exploring potential sale possibilities, a year after its transition into a for-profit entity, according to an internal memo from CEO Mike O’Neill that was obtained by Billboard. In the note to staff, O’Neill said, “Delivering for our affiliates is always our top priority, and we have a responsibility to engage in discussions with outside parties if they can help further that mission. That is exactly what we are doing right now, and no final decisions have been made.”
The discussions come a year after BMI had engaged Goldman Sachs to explore strategic opportunities in 2022, with one of the options at the time being a potential sale; that process ultimately did not lead to a deal. Reuters first reported that talks had reopened over a potential sale now. A spokesperson for BMI declined to comment.
In the memo, O’Neill wrote that after ending the strategic opportunities process last year, BMI chose to invest in the company “to grow the value of our affiliates’ music,” and that the change to the for-profit model, in addition to that investment, “has only intensified that outside interest.”
“It’s an exciting time for BMI and we’re in a strong position,” O’Neill wrote. “And the most important thing for us to do is keep focus and continue the great work that makes BMI the best PRO in the business. The future is filled with potential and there is no better team to tackle the numerous opportunities that lie ahead for our company and our affiliates.”
BMI, founded in 1939, represents more than 20 million works by more than 1 million songwriters, composers and publishers, including artists like Taylor Swift, Rihanna and Kendrick Lamar. In its most recent annual report, for the year ended June 30, 2022, the performance rights organization tallied revenues of $1.573 billion and distributed $1.471 billion to songwriters, its highest mark ever.
Read O’Neill’s full note below.
Hi Team,
A few press articles have come out today speculating that BMI is considering a sale. I am reaching out now because I want you to hear the background directly from me.
Not surprisingly, interest in BMI has continued since we announced a year ago that we were no longer considering a sale of our company. You may recall this was one of the options on the table when we were evaluating strategic opportunities to best position BMI for the future. Since then, the success of our business model change and our commitment to investing in BMI to grow the value of our affiliates’ music has only intensified that outside interest.
Delivering for our affiliates is always our top priority, and we have a responsibility to engage in discussions with outside parties if they can help further that mission. That is exactly what we are doing right now, and no final decisions have been made. By its very nature, speculation can often contain mischaracterizations and inaccurate information. Please don’t be distracted by this and know that I will update you directly on any new developments.
It’s an exciting time for BMI and we’re in a strong position. And the most important thing for us to do is keep focus and continue the great work that makes BMI the best PRO in the business. The future is filled with potential and there is no better team to tackle the numerous opportunities that lie ahead for our company and our affiliates.
Thank you, as always, for all you do.
MON