It was a record-breaking year for BMI.
The music rights management conglomerate reported that its annual revenue for the fiscal year ending June 30, 2019 was nearly $1.3 billion. This represents an increase of 7% from the preceding year.
It was also a record year for BMI’s songwriters, composers and publishers. The company’s distributions were close to $1.2 billion. This, too, represents an increase of 7% over the prior year.
All these numbers weren’t just records for BMI. They are reportedly the largest ever recorded for any music rights management company — though BMI’s our source on that one. “These results mark the most reported public performance revenues and highest royalty distributions of any music rights organization in the world,” BMI emailed Digital Music News this morning.
Mike O’Neill, who is the President and CEO of BMI, announced the results personally, and he credited them to the “unrivaled creativity” of those his company represents.
The distributions that BMI made came from a number of sources. These include not only foreign and domestic royalties, but also royalties from the direct deals the company has made with its publishing partners. These deals grew by $9 million this past year and totaled more than $60 million.
Domestic revenue alone at BMI reached nearly $1 billion. This revenue includes digital, media and general licensing. While this revenue grew at 7% over the previous year, digital-specific revenue grew by more than 20% and exceeded $250 million. Driving much of this growth was the eFitness market and the video-on-demand streaming market.
Foreign revenue at the company also saw a record high. It reached nearly $350 million, in spite of the company taking a nearly $25 million hit for foreign exchange losses, which were driven by the strength of the U.S. dollar worldwide.
Not all the records BMI reached this year were financial. For the first time in its history, its affiliate membership surpassed the one million mark. M ore than 90,000 new music artists signed with BMI during the year, including Lil Nas X, Shakira, John Legend, P!nk, and Rihanna.