Musical compositions, like other intellectual property, belong to their creators. U.S. Copyright Law grants certain exclusive rights to copyright owners, including the right to publicly perform and the right to authorize others to publicly perform the work. Websites that publicly perform music must obtain a license from the copyright owner or their representative. Songwriters and publishers affiliate with a performing rights organization like BMI which, on behalf of these affiliated writers and publishers, provides license agreements for all types of businesses. With more than 900,000 songwriters, composers and music publishers and a repertoire of 14 million musical works, a BMI license is an economical and efficient way to obtain the right to publicly perform BMI music.

BMI music includes some of the most popular and widely played music in the world. More than half of all of the music played on U.S. radio is licensed by BMI. Your BMI license allows you to efficiently and effectively use all of this music for a relatively low fee.

Music content is one of the driving forces behind the explosive growth of the Internet. As technological capabilities continue to improve, sound and video are becoming seamlessly integrated with web content. As a result, music can be an integral component of any successful business model in cyberspace. The web will depend on music in much the same way that radio and television rely on music for programming and content. On the web, music can bring even more added value as consumers become more actively involved in the content experience.

BMI serves thousands of customers who use music as an integral part of their businesses. In addition to websites and/or mobile applications, our customers include radio stations, local television stations, cable networks and systems, television networks, telephone video-on-demand program packagers, as well as a wide variety of commercial businesses ranging from hotels and restaurants to background music services, nightclubs, shopping malls and health clubs. BMI helps its customers efficiently and effectively use the power of BMI music.

BMI represents 14 million musical works by more than 900,000 songwriters, composers and publishers from across the musical spectrum. Our catalog includes musical works written by Elvis Presley, The Beatles, Eric Clapton, Dolly Parton, Miles Davis, Babyface, Aretha Franklin, The Rolling Stones, Chuck Berry, Sheryl Crow, Michael Jackson, Paul Simon and Elton John just to name a few. BMI songwriters make up 68% of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, 82% of the Country Music Hall of Fame, 94% of the Blues Music Awards and 66% of the Downbeat Jazz Poll winners.

BMI TV, film, theater and classical composers are equally successful. BMI legends such as Mike Post of “NYPD Blue,” fame or Ed Kalehoff, who wrote the opening for “Monday Night Football,” Charlie Fox, who penned numerous TV hits, including “Happy Days,” and WG Snuffy Walden, whose first big theme was for “ThirtySomething” are a small sample of the composers represented by BMI. BMI also represents the primary composers of many of the top grossing films of all time, including E.T., Jurassic Park, Star Wars, which were scored by John Williams, and “The Lion King,” with songs by Elton John and Tim Rice. For a complete of BMI featured musical works, you can refer to the song title database on the homepage of bmi.com.

Your license fees go back to the songwriters, composers and music publishers who create the music you are playing. BMI operates as a not-for-profit organization. All monies received, less operating expenses, are paid to songwriters, composers, and publishers in the form of royalties. Last year nearly 90% of every dollar BMI generated was returned to the creative community. Your BMI license fees enable the songwriters whose music you play to keep doing what they do best: writing more music to help make your website and/or mobile application a more frequently visited destination with compelling and entertaining content.

In order to better meet the needs of the digital business community and support new and emerging businesses and business models, we have instituted a choice of rates in our licensing models to reflect the diverse nature of the medium. We also strive to encourage the use of BMI music as these new business models emerge. We believe that the web should not be silent. We are committed to making sure that music is a large part of the development and maturation of the internet.

Even though there may be many artists represented on your service that are not known to the general public, they may be performing music in the BMI catalogue. There may also be artists that are represented on your service who are BMI affiliated songwriters.

Unsigned artists and artists signed to independent labels who write their own songs benefit greatly from the income generated from performance royalties. If your business is deriving revenue from the performance of music, then the songwriters and music publishers should be compensated for their creative contribution to your business.

Songwriters only receive a fraction of their compensation from revenue generated by the sales of the recording, and often split that fraction with co-writers and publishers. Many songwriter’s livelihoods depend on the money they receive from public performance royalties collected by BMI. In fact as much as 75% of a songwriter’s compensation can be from the performance royalty from radio, TV, cable networks and commercial establishments. The greatest hits of the 60s and 70s are still some of today’s most widely played songs. Because of the amount of airplay that occurs over the years, the public performance royalty becomes a critical component of the songwriter’s income. Many talented songwriters depend on the public performance revenues they receive through BMI to make their living.

There is no exemption for 30 seconds of less under U.S. Copyright Law. Record companies may permit such uses by certain businesses for the purpose of promoting album sales. Remember, however, that record companies derive most of their revenue from sales; BMI songwriters and publishers, on the other hand, depend heavily on income from public performance royalties.

In addition to the performing rights organizations that represent the writers and publishers of the musical works that you use on your website and/or mobile application, you may need to contact the record companies and/or the RIAA through their licensing organization SoundExchange regarding reproduction and/or distribution of their musical works.

If you have a question that you could not locate an answer for please feel free to contact one of our Digital Licensing representatives here.