Our Story
The music industry is changing, but one thing will always remain the same: songwriters deserve to get paid for their work. BMI fights for their rights, and I’m proud to know that the work we do helps songwriters and composers earn a living from their craft and keep the music flowing.
Barbie, Distribution & Administration
About BMI
Celebrating over 80 years of service to songwriters, composers, music publishers and businesses, BMI® is a global leader in music rights management, serving as an advocate for the value of music. BMI represents the public performance rights in over 22.4 million musical works created and owned by more than 1.4 million songwriters, composers, and music publishers. The Company negotiates music license agreements and distributes the fees it generates as royalties to its affiliated writers and publishers when their songs are performed in public. In 1939, BMI created a groundbreaking open-door policy becoming the only performing rights organization to welcome and represent the creators of blues, jazz, country, and American roots music. Today, the musical compositions in BMI’s repertoire, from chart toppers to perennial favorites, span all genres of music and are consistently among the most-performed hits of the year.
How We Advocate for Creators
BMI is a powerful voice on Capitol Hill in the fight for fair compensation for music creators and copyright owners. We are engaged in ongoing conversation with the U.S. Department of Justice regarding BMI’s decades-old consent decree, and we are consistently on the frontlines supporting historic music legislation like the Music Modernization Act (MMA), which benefits all music creators. Click here to learn more about BMI’s advocacy efforts.
For additional information and the latest BMI news, visit bmi.com, follow us on X and Instagram @BMI or stay connected through BMI’s Facebook page. Sign up for BMI’s The Weekly™ and receive our e-newsletter every week to stay up to date on all things music.
I love that BMI celebrates creativity. We come up with great ideas and the entire team works together to bring them to life, supporting each other along the way. Being a team member at BMI feels like I’m part of a family.
Marché, Creative
- 1940s
- 1950s
- 1960s
- 1970s
- 1980s
- 1990s
- 2000s
- 2010s
1940s
BMI opens its doors and welcomes all music creators, regardless of their musical genre. Unlike ASCAP, our only competitor at the time, all are granted membership even if they have no established successful material.
BMI plays a critical role in the rise of country music. Rhythm & Blues makes its appearance in Billboard, with BMI virtually alone in representing R&B creators and publishers, licensing more than 90 percent of R&B radio hits on a weekly basis. Both genres fuse to give birth to a new genre that will sweep America and the world – rock and roll.
1950s
Elvis Presley joins BMI, and in quick succession, other performers including Buddy Holly, Miles Davis, Willie Nelson and Paul Simon follow.
BMI holds its first annual Country Awards and its first annual R&B Awards.
BMI hires Frances Preston to open the Company’s Nashville office. As one of the first female music executives in Tennessee, she is a pioneer in the industry and goes on to become President and CEO of BMI until her retirement in 2004.
1960s
Brian Holland, Lamont Dozier and Eddie Holland all join BMI. In just three years they amass 28 Top 20 hits for Motown acts like the Four Tops and the Supremes, including “Stop! In the Name of Love.”
John Williams signs with BMI. One of the greatest composers of all time, he goes on to score a myriad of iconic films, including Jaws, Superman, Indiana Jones, Star Wars and Harry Potter, among others.
Dolly Parton also signs with BMI, as does Kenneth Gamble, Leon Huff, Aretha Franklin and Barry Manilow.
1970s
Natalie Cole signs with BMI, as does Kenneth “Babyface” Edmonds, Barry and Maurice Gibb and Gloria and Emilio Estefan.
BMI songwriter, John Lennon, delivers “Happy Xmas (War Is Over),” a moving message of hope, peace and humanity, while Paul Simon becomes the leading BMI Million Performance Certificate winner.
Dolly Parton rules the charts with such classics as “I Will Always Love You.” Stevie Nicks joins Fleetwood Mac and becomes a role model for generations of aspiring female rockers. Nicks goes on to be given the BMI Icon Award, which honors a BMI songwriter or composer’s unique and indelible influence on generations of music creators.
1980s
BMI Icons, RUN-DMC, make history with their self-titled debut, rap’s first gold album, followed by King of Rock, rap’s first platinum album. With “Walk This Way,” their epic collaboration with Aerosmith, they forever blurred the lines between rap and rock.
BMI Pop Icons, Daryl Hall and John Oates, become the best-selling rock duo of all time, while Roy Orbison joins Elvis Presley as the only singers to ever simultaneously have two top 5 albums on the Billboard charts.
BMI’s first Richard Kirk Award, given to composers who have made significant contributions to the realm of television and film music, is presented to influential composer, Jerry Goldsmith.
1990s
BMI celebrates its 50th anniversary in 1990.
The Righteous Brothers’ song “You’ve Lost That Lovin’ Feelin’,” written by Phil Spector, Barry Mann and Cynthia Weil, becomes the first song to accumulate more than seven million airplays in BMI’s history.
Husband-and-wife team, Robert Lopez and Kristin Anderson-Lopez, meet at the BMI Lehman Engel Musical Theatre Workshop. They go on to win the 2013 Oscar for “Let It Go” from the blockbuster film Frozen, landing Robert in the “EGOT” history book for winning an Emmy, GRAMMY, Oscar and Tony. In 2018, he becomes the first double EGOT winner, when the couple win an Oscar for “Remember Me” from the animated hit film, Coco.
2000s
Del Bryant, a BMI songwriter and employee since 1972, becomes the Company’s new President and CEO.
At 15 years old, Taylor Swift signs with BMI. BMI also signs Lady Gaga and Rihanna.
BMI Icon Awards are presented to Chuck Berry, Little Richard, Bo Didley, James Brown, Bill Anderson, Brian Holland, Lamont Dozier and Eddie Holland, Van Morrison, Carlos Santana, Daryl Hall and John Oates.
2010s
Having been employed by BMI since 1994, Mike O’Neill is appointed Chief Executive Officer in 2013. He assumes the additional role of BMI President one year later.
BMI makes tremendous strides on the advocacy front, winning important battles against the Department of Justice to preserve fractional licensing and Pandora to help boost digital streaming rates for creators. BMI also becomes the first music rights organization in the world to deliver over $1 billion in public performance royalties to its affiliates.
#1 global sensation “Despacito” by Luis Fonsi makes Latin music history, and Lil Nas X becomes the artist with the longest-running Billboard Hot 100 #1 in history with “Old Town Road.”
“Every Breath You Take,” written by Sting and performed by The Police, becomes the most-performed song in BMI’s repertoire with 15 million plays.
BMI has been in business for nearly 80 years and continues to be as groundbreaking as ever.