No. BMI Live is intended for non-classical performances. Quarterly royalty payments from BMI Live are completely separate from the annual Live Classical royalty distribution, For more information, please review our guidelines for reporting classical performances.

Some international societies in Europe and Asia have shortened their reporting deadlines significantly. As a result, it is now imperative to report all international live classical concerts within six months of the performance date. Send us a copy of the concert program (or other acceptable documentation) along with a completed International Report Form via email to .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address), or via regular mail to:

BMI Classical
7 World Trade Center
250 Greenwich Street
New York, NY 10007-0030

We strongly recommend using email reporting to ensure faster processing. For more information, please review our guidelines for reporting classical performances.

No. Royalties from radio play are based on a statistical sample. BMI uses performance monitoring data, continuously collected on a large percentage of all licensed commercial radio stations, to determine payable performances. We cannot accept performance reports from our writers or publishers for radio broadcasts.

The copyright status of the text depends largely on when it was first published in the US. Currently, anything published before 1923 is probably in the public domain. Works that were published before 1978 are likely in copyright for 95 years. Works published after January 1, 1978 are in copyright for the life of the writer plus 70 years. For a more detailed analysis of copyright status, please see this Cornell resource on Copyright Term and the Public Domain in the United States.

If the work was never published, permission must be obtained in writing to use the work from the author’s heirs or estate. If the work was published, the publisher is most likely the copyright holder, and permission must be sought from them.

You may register a suite from the ballet for concert presentation.

Yes. Although BMI doesn’t license theatrical or dramatic musical presentations, we do pay for radio broadcast of operas, operettas and musicals, as well as excerpts from dramatic works, and those presentations that are unstaged concert versions.

Music written in service to a film or television show is not registered as classical at BMI, regardless of instrumentation or how the music sounds. Please register your film cues and credits as non-classical by selecting “all other genres.”

At BMI, you need not affiliate a publishing entity in order to receive publishing shares, as we pay all royalties (writer and publisher) to the composer on any self-published works. If you prefer to receive your composer and publisher royalty streams separately, you may affiliate your publishing company by completing the BMI Publisher Application Form. Please note that while composer affiliation is free, there is a one-time fee to affiliate a publishing company with BMI.

When the new instrumentation of an existing work has the same title and duration, please do not re-register it, but send an email with the details to classical@bmi.com.

Works that are going straight to recorded release without live concert premieres are not registered as classical. Please register instrumental CD tracks as non-classical by selecting “all other genres” at the beginning of the registration process.

Arrangements are not eligible for the live classical distribution at BMI. Please register all arrangements as non-classical by selecting “all other genres” at the beginning of the registration process.