September 16, 2003

BMI Partners With SupportMusic.com

Press Release

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NEW YORK, September 16, 2003—BMI, the performing rights organization, has partnered with SupportMusic.com in a new initiative in BMI’s array of efforts to support music education and school music programs. BMI’s dedicated partnership with SupportMusic.com will provide resources to community members to act locally, focused on informing and empowering parents to help restore local school music programs.
“BMI is pleased to partner with SupportMusic.com. Our effort recognizes the importance of music education within all communities,” said Frances W. Preston, BMI President and CEO.
Launched by the Music Education Coalition, (an entity created by MENC, the National Association for Music Education and NAMM, the International Music Products Association), SupportMusic.com is the largest national grass roots initiative organized to support local school music programs.
Key to this crusade is an innovative online “Build Your Case” system that simplifies the advocacy process, featuring an interactive bulletin board where strategies can be shared and questions answered by advocacy advisors. Visitors to this site can also access information regarding ways to help combat the elimination of music from school curriculums.
BMI’s partnership with SupportMusic.com is part of a continuing effort to enhance the creation, performance and study of music. The BMI Foundation, Inc., a separate not-for-profit corporation founded by BMI executives in 1985, is dedicated to encouraging young musical talent through awards, scholarships, internships, grants and commissions. Included among the BMI Foundation’s many programs are the John Lennon Scholarship, BMI Student Composer Awards and Pete Carpenter Fellowship. Additionally, BMI was a founding sponsor of The Mr. Holland’s Opus Foundation, which has donated approximately $6 million worth of instruments to programs and individuals nationwide.
SupportMusic.com is the most recent effort in a long tradition of initiatives with MENC, which include BMI’s role as a functioning sponsor for MENC’s Foundation for the Advancement of Music Education (FAME).
Founded in 1939, BMI is an American performing rights organization that represents more than 300,000 songwriters, composers and music publishers in all genres of music. Through its music performance and reciprocal agreements with sister organizations around the world, it grants businesses and media access to its repertoire of approximately 4.5 million songs and compositions.
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Contact: SupportMusic.com BMI
Kim McDade Ronnie Lippin Robbin Ahrold
The Lippin Group/NY The Lippin Group/LA BMI
          212-986-7080           323-965-1990 212-830-2502
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