BMI Intros Breakthrough Digital Licensing Center

Posted in News on January 11, 2000

End to End Solution: Making the Market for Electronic Rights Online

NEW YORK, January 11, 2000 - BMI®, the music copyright organization that represents the public performance rights of more than 3 million musical works, today announced The BMI Digital Licensing Center (DLC) : the first totally digital music copyright licensing system for Internet sites. The DLC is the latest development in the organization's effort to build a flexible, scaleable marketplace for copyrighted content in cyberspace.

The digital rights system is aimed at making it easier for small Internet site owners and managers to gain access to the performing rights to BMI's repertoire, while allowing BMI to license many thousands of internet sites more cost effectively.

The DLC is a breakthrough, end-to-end "click-through" system that allows Internet sites to complete copyright licensing agreements on demand with BMI 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

The Digital Licensing Center is the next step in BMI's Horizon Project(sm), the company's multifaceted technology initiative aimed at deploying digital business systems and processes throughout the company. Other BMI digital licensing initiatives include the BMIMusicBot�, an Internet search and database tool released in 1997, and BMI's Internet-based digital airplay reporting system for radio stations. BMI signed the first-ever agreement for the performance of copyrighted music on the web in April 1995.

Through the DLC, sites will be able to gain instant online access to public performance copyrights to BMI's entire catalogue of more than 3 million musical works in three easy steps:

1. Completion of a Customer Profile
2. Acceptance of License Terms, and
3. Submission of credit card information for payment of minimum fees.

As part of the new licensing system, BMI also reduced the minimum fees that it charges smaller Internet sites for blanket access to its repertoire. Under BMI's previous rate structure, low revenue-producing sites paid BMI a minimum fee of $500 per year. Under the new rate structure the lowest revenue producing sites will pay BMI just $250 for a year of unlimited clearance of the public performing rights for BMI's repertoire.

The new fee structure maintains a percentage of revenue option for larger sites and provides a grid of minimum fees making it easier for smaller sites to determine and pay fees. The new fee structure offers three payment levels:

Annual Site Revenues up To	Annual Fee
$ 12,000	$ 250
$18,500	$ 375
$ 25,000	$ 500

Sites earning more than $25,000 per year will pay BMI based on a percentage of revenue at either 1.75% of total site revenues or 2.5% of music area revenues. Agreements for sites earning over $ 25,000 per year are downloadable off the web at bmi.com.

About BMI and copyrights
Musical compositions are recognized under US Copyright law as intellectual property similar to newspaper articles, books, movies, television shows, photographs and computer programs. BMI represents the public performance copyright interest of more than 250,000 songwriters, composers and music publishers, and has pioneered efforts to protect copyright interests in new media, including the Internet. BMI also licenses television stations, radio stations, cable networks and systems and commercial establishments for the public performance of music. The BMI repertoire includes more than 3 million musical works.

SOURCENews TAGS Licensing Rights Management