BMI secures ‘largest ever rate increase’ from US radio

BMI secures ‘largest rate increase ever’ for radio royalties in the United States

Performance rights organization BMI says it has reached a settlement on royalties paid to artists and songwriters on US radio, in what it calls the “largest rate increase ever” for radio play.

In a statement issued on Tuesday (August 19), BMI and the Radio Music License Committee (RMLC), which represents US broadcasters, said they had reached a settlement in a long-running legal contest over royalty rates for the 2022-2026 period.

The organizations didn’t disclose the new rates, but described it as “a historic rate increase for BMI that reflects the company’s superior market share in the radio industry”.

The deal will be applied retroactively to January 1, 2022.

An interesting quirk in this story: BMI was historically owned by a group of US radio and broadcasting companies, but that all changed in Q1 last year, when the PRO was acquired by a shareholder group led by private equity firm, New Mountain Capital… (MBW)