BMI 2012 Fiscal Report

For its fiscal year ended June 30, 2012, Broadcast Music, Inc. (BMI) has reported $898.8 million in revenues, and will distribute $749.8 million in royalties.

BMI’s revenues are down approximately 3% from fiscal year 2011, due primarily to new agreements with the Radio Music Licensing Committee (RMLC), which represents the vast majority of U.S. radio stations. BMI recognized the entire financial impact of the radio settlement in fiscal year 2012.

For the 2011 fiscal year, revenues were in excess of $931 million, with royalty distribution of about $796 million. In 2010 revenues totaled $917 million with distributions of about $789 million.

The impact on total revenues from the radio settlement was blunted by revenue increases in international, general licensing, cable networks and digital media.

New media and digital revenue reached an all-time high of $35 million, representing an increase of 27% over fiscal year 2011 and generating 6% of domestic revenue.

For the first time, international revenues accounted for more than a third of BMI’s revenue, totaling $302 million, up 12% from the prior year.

General Licensing revenue from physical establishments such as restaurants and nightclubs saw an 8% increase to $108 million.

BMI distributed payments on the largest number of individual musical works in its history in 2012. A total of 40 billion performances from BMI’s catalog of 7.5 million musical works were processed during fiscal year 2012.

BMI serves more than 650,000 licensed businesses and 550,000 songwriters, composers and music publishers. Songwriters including Lady Gaga, Foster the People’s Mark Foster, Maroon 5, Benny Blanco and Pitbull, Taylor Swift, Nicki Minaj and The Band Perry wrote many of BMI’s most-played hits of the year.

“BMI has weathered the economic storm remarkably well considering the negative conditions that have impacted many of our revenue sources,” said BMI President and CEO Del Bryant. “Our distributions to music publishers and songwriters have remained predictable and reliable. Even with the retroactive radio settlement and a challenging financial landscape, we have still been able to return nearly 84 cents of every dollar we have generated back to our publishers and songwriters. Our performance in fiscal year 2012 under these difficult conditions is a testament to our prudent fiscal management and to our resolve to responsibly manage the copyrights and income entrusted to us by our publishers and songwriters.”