Broadcast Music, Inc., a global leader in music rights management, collects license fees from businesses that use music, which it distributes as royalties to songwriters, composers & music publishers.
Music Licensing for Symphony Orchestras
BMI is proud to announce the release of a new music license for symphony orchestras designed in close cooperation with a representative group of American orchestras.
Do you have questions about the use of music in your business? Please review the FAQ’s below or contact a BMI representative for additional assistance.
Common questions:
Q: What music does BMI have to offer Symphony Orchestras in the field of classical music?
BMI’s award-winning repertoire of more than 6.5 million musical works includes orchestral music by some of the most-performed composers in the world. BMI composers are winners of many prestigious prizes and honors: the Pulitzer Prize, Grammy Awards, Guggenheim Fellowships, Grawemeyer Awards, Mac Arthur “Genius” Grants, Academy Awards, Emmy Awards, Tony Awards, National Medal of Arts, Kennedy Center Honors, NEA Jazz Masters, and others.
BMI is particularly proud to represent the music of 6 out of 10 of the “Most frequently performed living U.S. composers” named by the American Symphony Orchestra League’s 2004-2005 Orchestra Repertoire Report, 29 Pulitzer Prize winners, and more than half of the composer members of the prestigious American Academy of Arts and Letters. BMI has a long history of encouraging young emerging composers through its Student Composer Awards, established in 1952, and now one of the most prestigious honors for young composers in the Western Hemisphere.
Q: Do we need a license if we are a non-profit organization?
Yes. The copyright law applies to for-profit and not-for-profit performances alike. Though there is an exemption when there is no payment or other compensation to the performers, promoters, or organizers of the event, there must also be no direct or indirect admission charge of any kind. All proceeds for the performance, after deduction of the reasonable costs of producing the event, must also be used exclusively for educational, religious, or charitable purposes. Only in these narrowly-defined circumstances is an exemption granted.
Q: Do we need a license if our events are held at a college or university that has a BMI license?
Yes. When independent organizations rent campus facilities for events that they sponsor and produce themselves, they must first obtain their own BMI Music Performance Agreements. However, if the college or university holds a BMI license and is also the presenter of the event, a separate license is not necessary.
Q: Do we need a performance license if we own the printed score and parts or have paid a rental fee to the publisher?
Yes. The Copyright Law identifies the print right, or the right to reproduce and distribute printed music, as distinct from the performing right. As a result, the cost of purchasing or renting performance materials for a copyrighted work, whether published or unpublished, does not include public performance rights.
Q: How long does a work remain in copyright?
Works created before January 1, 1978 may be protected in the United States for a term of 95 years; works created on or after January 1, 1978 are protected during the lifetime of the creator(s) plus 70 years.
Q: Does a BMI license cover performances of excerpts from dramatic musical works?
Yes. A BMI Music Performance Agreement is a "small rights" license which grants to the licensee the legal authorization to present non-dramatic public performances of any or all of the works in the BMI repertory. Included in these may be unstaged selections or excerpts from dramatic musical works. However, when you mount fully-staged productions of operas, ballets, musical theater works, and other dramatic works, a "grand rights" license must be obtained directly from the copyright owner.
Q: What if a composer is performing his or her own compositions?
Fees paid to a composer for services as a performing artist do not usually include performance rights to the musical compositions themselves. These rights are ordinarily licensed by the composer’s performing rights organization.
Q: Who are some of BMI’s well-known composers whose music is widely performed by orchestras all over the world?
- John Adams
- David Amram
- Milton Babbitt
- Luciano Berio
- William Bolcom
- Dave Brubeck
- Elliot Carter
- Henry Cowell
- George Crumb
- Richard Danielpour
- Michael Daugherty
- Norman Dello Joio
- Morton Feldman
- Lukas Foss
- Osvaldo Golijov
- John Harbison
- Roy Harris
- Lou Harrison
- Alan Hovhaness
- Karel Husa
- Charles Ives
- Aaron Kernis
- Leon Kirchner
- Bobby McFerrin
- Alan Menken
- Tobias Picker
- Walter Piston
- Kevin Puts
- Bernard Rands
- Steve Reich
- Ottorino Respighi (SIAE)
- Christopher Rouse
- Roger Sessions
- Gunther Schulller
- William Schuman
- Joseph Schwantner
- Toru Takemitsu (JASRAC)
- Michael Torke
- Joan Tower
- Edgard Varese
- Heitor Villa-Lobos (UBC)
- John Williams
- Charles Wuorinen
- Ellen Taaffe Zwilich
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