BMI has distributed and administered $1.471 billion to its songwriters, composers and publishers, marking its highest royalty distributions ever, in the year ending June 30, 2022. Revenue also grew, totaling a record-breaking $1.573 billion — a $212 million, or 16%, increase compared to the last fiscal year.
On Tuesday, the group published its annual report which logged a boost of $136 million (up by 10%) in distributions compared to the previous year. That total includes domestic and international royalties as well as distributions from direct deals between BMI publishers and digital service providers that BMI administers on their behalf.
Those direct deals, which make up approximately 3% of BMI’s overall distribution, totaled $49 million, or $36 million less than the previous year. BMI estimates the number to be lower due to a shift in licensing partners who have decided to forego direct deals and have come back to BMI to handle their licensing needs.
“We had an exceptionally strong year thanks to the incredible popularity of the BMI repertoire,” said Mike O’Neill, president-CEO of BMI, in a statement. “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.”
Domestically, BMI tallied $572 million for a $149 million increase — a growth of 35% seen across all digital sectors, with notable increases in subscription video-on-demand services such as Netflix, Disney+, AppleTV+ and Peacock. In addition, BMI acquired new digital audiovisual agreements with Roku, Vudu, Equinox+ and Snapchat, among others. Revenue from digital sources represented 48% of BMI’s domestic total.
Domestic media licensing revenue, comprised of cable and satellite, broadcast television and radio, came in at $479 million, an increase of $7 million, or 2%, over the last year. Cable and satellite-derived revenue totaled $270.3 million, falling in line with last year’s trajectory. Radio revenues totaled $114.2 million, an increase of 6%. Broadcast television revenue came in at $94.3 million, in line with last year’s totals.
General licensing, along with other income, was up 10% year-to-year with $140 million — inching closer to the company’s pre-pandemic revenue levels.
Despite the disadvantage of foreign exchange rates, due to the strengthening of the U.S. dollar, BMI’s international revenue grew to $382 million, up $43 million, or 13%, across the last year.
As for performances, BMI processed approximately 2.23 trillion this year (up 13%). Of that total, 2.21 trillion were digital performances, and over 260 billion of those were digital audio-visual performances, a 7% increase over last year highlighting the continued growth of this sector. BMI also saw a growth of 10% in the number of licensed musical works this year, bringing the total to 20.6 million.
Over 100,000 new songwriters, composers and publishers joined BMI in 2022, bringing their affiliate membership to more than 1.3 million. Recent signees included Griff, Karol G, Kid Culture, the Kid Laroi and Troye Sivan, while agreements were extended with Anuel AA, A$AP Ferg, J Balvin, Metro Boomin and Doja Cat, among others.
