BMI has grown its revenue and distributions to record-setting levels, closing out a full fiscal year marked by ongoing challenges around the Covid-19 pandemic. The company announced it has distributed and administered a record $1.335 billion to its songwriters, composers and publi “In a year marked by incredible challenges, the power of music is stronger than ever,” said Mike O’Neill, President & CEO, BMI. “BMI was once again able to demonstrate record growth, both in revenue and with the largest royalty distributions in our history. I am very proud of the team at BMI who, throughout the year, continued to focus on our top priority of mitigating the financial impact of the pandemic on our creative community. We are very pleased to not only provide this stability to our songwriters, composers and publi BMI’s record performance in total domestic revenue, comprised of the digital, media and general licensing categories, was driven by a 47% increase in digital licensing revenue, which closed the year at $448 million. BMI will report this number as $423 million per the ASC 606 accounting guidance. Digital audiovisual services contributed greatly to the increase, thanks to new agreements with several FAST (free ad supported TV) services, strong growth from subscription video-on-demand services including Disney+, Hulu and Netflix, and the proliferation of direct-to-streaming film premieres on services such as Apple, Amazon, YouTube and Fandango NOW, among others. The company also forged new licensing agreements including Fortnite, and renewed agreements with Spotify and Pandora, among others. BMI’s growth in digital helped offset declines in the media licensing and general licensing categories due to the pandemic. Total domestic media licensing revenue, comprised of cable and satellite, broadcast radio and television, posted an 11% decline from last year to $469 million. BMI will report this number as $472 million per the ASC 606 accounting guidance. Of this, cable and satellite derived revenues remained the largest contributor, coming in essentially flat to last year at $269 million. Radio posted a $50 million decline year-to-year, due to a combination of the ongoing impact of the pandemic on advertising and the one-time retroactive payment included in last year’s radio total that resulted from BMI’s rate court settlement with the industry. Broadcast television came in at $95 million, down 6% from last year. The general licensing sector, consisting of businesses like live concert venues, bars, restaurants, fitness centers, along with other income, was down 2% year-to-year for a total of $127 million. The category, which saw a 23% decline last year, is starting to rebuild as businesses continue to reopen across the country. Powered by the global strength of BMI’s repertoire, international revenue grew to $365 million this year, a $15 million or 4% increase over last year. However, due to ASC 606 accounting guidance, that number is reported as $339 million. BMI’s affiliate membership grew 11% this year to 1.2 million, with nearly 120,000 new songwriters, composers and publi
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