June 2013
Dear Songwriter, Composer and Publisher,
It’s been a busy quarter at BMI as we work to define the value of your music to businesses, legislators and the growing number of music users in the digital age. As you may have heard, BMI recently filed an action in New York City asking the Federal Rate Court to set royalty fees for Internet service Pandora on behalf of our members. The action, filed as a last resort, asks the court to set reasonable, market driven fees for Pandora after negotiations did not result in an agreement. Other services have embraced the value of music. Last week we announced completion of a marketplace agreement with Apple for their upcoming iRadio service.
I’d also like to tell you about some of the legislative initiatives in support of creators’ rights with which BMI has been involved. On April 23, 2013, several BMI senior executives and I went to Washington, D.C., to educate Congressional staff, legislators and lobbyists about the craft of songwriting. Accompanying us were 2012 BMI Country Songwriter of the Year, Luke Laird, and 2013 BMI Pop Songwriter of the Year, Claude Kelly, who spoke eloquently about creating music for their livelihood and shared a look inside the creative process. In the near future, we will be reaching out to a wider group of creators to join us on the Hill and continue to discuss the creative process and the value of music today.
BMI returned to D.C. on June 4 and 5 to participate in the International Confederation of Societies of Authors and Composers (CISAC) World Creators Summit, which focused on intellectual property rights in the digital age. During the Summit, we were instrumental in arranging a Congressional panel on copyright legislation with House Judiciary Chairman Bob Goodlatte and Internet Caucus Co-chair Anna G. Eshoo. At BMI’s invitation, Maria Pallante, U.S. Register of Copyrights, also participated in the Summit and gave an address on copyright reform. BMI has a long history of working together with CISAC, a not-for-profit organization uniting 231 authors’ societies and guilds in 121 countries and protecting the rights of more than three million creators and publishers.
We are very excited and proud about our recently negotiated agreements with Netflix and Hulu. Please be sure to check bmi.com in the coming weeks for the proposed distribution schedule for the funds received from these new agreements.
Also on our website will be new information with respect to our policy regarding the date when BMI publishers may elect to withdraw their repertoire for certain digital uses. This may not only be of interest to our publishers, but the writers they represent.
As a reminder, BMI’s green initiative will continue early next year, with your royalty statements and summary information available only online. We will also soon be transitioning from paper checks to direct deposit, so we encourage you to begin to use BMI online services as soon as possible. Contact your Writer/Publisher Relations representative for assistance, or go directly to bmi.com for further instructions.
Congratulations to Carole King for her prestigious Gershwin Prize, to BMI’s President Award recipient, Adam Levine, and to our Richard Kirk Award recipient, Cliff Martinez. We salute all of the songwriters and composers who have garnered great success during this year, from the Student Composer Awards to this year’s Songwriters Hall of Fame honorees.
As a final note, we’ve recently redesigned our website, making it easier to navigate and more efficient for your transactions. As you can see from the above topics, more and more valuable information is being aggregated on our site, making it one of the most important resources in your musical career. We recommend that you visit http://www.bmi.com often.
Have a happy and safe summer!
Sincerely,
Del Bryant
President
Chief Executive Officer
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