Broadcast Music, Inc. (BMI) president and CEO Mike O’Neill has formally confirmed the longstanding rumor that his for-profit efficiency rights group (PRO) is in talks to promote – whereas additionally emphasizing that “no deal has been signed right now.”
The pinnacle of the 84-year-old PRO only in the near past acknowledged the much-discussed sale negotiations in a fiscal-year 2023 annual report, albeit with out disclosing the potential purchaser or the exact progress of associated conversations. For background, the Music Nation-partnered entity had in March of 2022 enlisted Goldman Sachs to assist discover a doable sale.
This preliminary course of wrapped sans purchaser in August of 2022, at which level BMI introduced various layoffs; October of 2022 noticed the group (which, like ASCAP, is topic to a consent decree) shift to a for-profit mannequin.
Then, purportedly in-the-know nameless sources over the summer time prompt that BMI had rekindled its pursuit of a sale. Final time we checked in on the matter, Billboard shed mild upon BMI’s reported effort to hammer out a $1.7 billion take care of enterprise agency New Mountain Capital.
For sure, the reportedly concerned events have but to verify an settlement. And although Mike O’Neill didn’t point out New Mountain Capital, he did expressly observe “discussions with a possible new associate.”
“I can verify that we’re partaking in discussions with a possible new associate,” he relayed, “and whereas our conversations are ongoing and have been very productive, no deal has been signed right now.”
From there, O’Neill throughout a number of paragraphs tried to assuage the considerations (and defuse the arguments) of those that imagine BMI’s pivoting to a for-profit mannequin will render songwriters’ pursuits and revenue secondary to the monetary targets of the PRO itself.
“Understandably, a lot of the current dialogue has centered across the degree of revenue that BMI will take beneath this new mannequin,” elaborated O’Neill, “and I’ve heard your suggestions round the necessity to make clear this situation. So let me just do that. Importantly, the technique outlined beneath will maintain true for BMI whether or not or not we transfer ahead with a sale.”
All through the following three years, BMI will look “to distribute 85% of licensing income” to songwriters, composers, and publishers, retaining the remaining 15% or so to cowl “bills/overhead (which have traditionally run round 10%) and a modest revenue margin,” per O’Neill.
Time will after all reveal the change’s actual songwriter affect, however the risk that BMI’s north of 1.4 million members might take pleasure in bolstered funds is value contemplating. Furthermore, these dissatisfied with the for-profit mannequin’s results have the choice of leaping to totally different stateside PROs together with ASCAP, which continues to tout its not-for-profit standing.
Elsewhere within the prolonged report, O’Neill communicated that BMI’s calendar-year 2023 distributions are “projected to be up 11%” 12 months over 12 months from 2022, with a file $400 million distribution teed up for November. And BMI mentioned its complete works had grown to 22.4 million (up 9% YoY), accompanied by 2.61 trillion processed performances (up 17% YoY), throughout essentially the most lately accomplished fiscal 12 months.
Final month, ASCAP songwriters descended on Capitol Hill to demand legislative motion on AI, whereas SESAC earlier in October tapped Soundreef to characterize its repertoire in Italy.