TL;DR
BMI (Broadcast Music, Inc.) collects performance royalties for songwriters, composers, and publishers when their music is performed, broadcast, or streamed. BMI membership is free for songwriters and publishers alike, but collecting your full royalties requires registering each song with correct ISRCs, registering a publishing entity to claim the publisher's share, and verifying that co-writer splits are consistent across all registrations. BMI also has a neighboring rights enrollment program that can extend your royalty collection to 150+ countries.
BMI represents over 1.4 million songwriters, composers, and music publishers. BMI distributed $1.573 billion in royalties in its last publicly reported fiscal year (FY2022), per BMI's last annual report. BMI was acquired by New Mountain Capital in 2024 and no longer publishes annual revenue figures. By scope, BMI covers performance royalties from streaming services, broadcast radio, television, live venues, and other music users across the US and through BMI's international reciprocal agreements.
The gap between what BMI collects and what independent artists actually receive is wide — not because BMI withholds money, but because most independent artists have incomplete registrations, ISRC mismatches, or missing publishing entities.
What BMI Collects
BMI collects performance royalties — the fee owed each time a licensed musical work is performed or transmitted publicly:
Digital streaming. Every stream on Spotify, Apple Music, Tidal, Amazon Music, and similar services triggers a performance royalty. Your distributor collects the master recording revenue from these platforms; BMI or ASCAP collects the separate performance royalty for the underlying composition.
AM/FM radio and satellite. Radio stations pay blanket licenses to BMI, which are distributed to rights holders based on airplay data. Satellite radio (SiriusXM) pays performance royalties for compositions through BMI (separate from SoundExchange, which pays for the recording).
Television. Network, cable, and streaming TV productions pay BMI royalties when music is performed or broadcast. This includes background music, theme songs, and sync placements.
Live performance. Venues, concert promoters, and festival organizers pay BMI licensing fees. These are distributed to songwriters whose works were performed.
BMI does not collect mechanical royalties (The MLC handles this for US digital), master recording revenue (your distributor handles this), or digital performance royalties from internet radio (SoundExchange handles this).
BMI vs. ASCAP: What Matters for Independent Artists
Both BMI and ASCAP collect the same types of royalties through similar reciprocal networks. The practical differences for independent artists:
BMI publisher membership is free. ASCAP charges approximately $150 for publisher membership. BMI publisher registration is free, making it slightly easier to register a self-publishing entity and claim the full 100% of performance royalties.
BMI payment schedule. BMI distributes royalties on a quarterly basis with roughly a 9–12 month lag between performance and payment.
BMI's international agreements. BMI has reciprocal agreements with over 150 international CMOs. The same caveats apply as with ASCAP: correct ISWCs and proper work registration are required for international royalties to flow correctly.
Neither is inherently better. Songwriters choose one PRO and stay with it. The quality of what you collect depends far more on how completely you register your works than on which PRO you choose.
What Independent Artists Most Commonly Miss at BMI
No publisher registration. BMI distributes royalties in two equal halves — writer's share and publisher's share. If you haven't registered a publishing entity at BMI, you're collecting 50% of what you're owed. BMI publisher registration is free and takes about 10 minutes.
Works never registered. BMI membership opens the door, but royalties only flow for works that have been individually registered in BMI's work database. Uploading to Spotify doesn't register anything with BMI.
ISRC mismatches. Streaming platforms report plays by ISRC. If the ISRC on your BMI work registration doesn't match the ISRC your distributor assigned, the match fails and royalties accumulate in the unmatched pool.
Inconsistent co-writer splits. If you registered a 60/40 split at BMI and your co-writer registered 50/50 at ASCAP, the conflicting ownership data causes royalties for the entire song to be held — not just the disputed portion.
Missing ISWC. ISWCs are assigned by the CISAC system through BMI when you register a work. Without an ISWC, international CMOs can't link your BMI registration to plays in their territory.
How to Register with BMI
Step 1: Create a BMI account. Go to bmi.com and register. Songwriter and publisher membership are both free.
Step 2: Register a publishing entity. In your BMI account, create a publishing entity. The name can be your full name + "Music" or "Publishing," or any entity name you use. This is the publisher that will receive the publisher's share of all royalties.
Step 3: Register your works. For each song, submit a work registration with:
- Song title (exactly as it appears on streaming platforms)
- All co-writers with their PRO affiliations and split percentages (totaling 100%)
- Your publishing entity as publisher for your share
- ISRC(s) — use the ISRC your distributor assigned, found in your distributor dashboard
Step 4: Verify ISWC assignment. After your work registration is accepted, check that BMI has assigned or requested an ISWC for each work. This is the identifier that enables international royalty flow.
BMI and International Royalties
BMI's international royalty collection works through reciprocal agreements with CMOs in over 150 countries. When a streaming platform reports a play in Germany, GEMA matches that play against its registered works, identifies the songwriter's PRO affiliation (BMI), and remits the royalty to BMI, which then passes it through to you.
This chain breaks at several points:
- If your work doesn't have an ISWC, GEMA and other foreign CMOs can't reliably match it
- If your work metadata (title, ISRC, writer name) differs between what's in BMI's system and what DSPs report, the match fails
- Some foreign CMOs require CWR (Common Works Registration) filings — a structured format for international registrations that most independent artists never submit
For artists with meaningful international streaming, the gap between what BMI collects domestically and what international territories owe can be substantial.
What CreateBase Does for BMI Members
CreateBase audits your BMI registrations against your distributor catalog and international royalty data:
- We identify BMI-registered works with missing or mismatched ISRCs
- We verify that your publishing entity is properly linked to every registered work
- We flag works in your distributor catalog that haven't been registered at BMI
- We confirm ISWC assignment for every work
- We audit co-writer splits for consistency across BMI and any co-writers' PROs
- We file CWR registrations through BMI's international network to ensure your works are correctly represented in key international markets
Get a free audit of your BMI registration gaps → CreateBase delivers a free personalized royalty gap report within 48 hours.
Frequently Asked Questions
Q: Does BMI or ASCAP pay more?
A: Neither consistently pays more — the royalty rates they collect from licensees are governed by the same regulatory frameworks (through the Department of Justice consent decrees) and market negotiations. What you collect from either depends almost entirely on how thoroughly you register your works and whether your metadata is correct.
Q: Can I switch from ASCAP to BMI or vice versa?
A: Yes. Writers can leave one PRO and join the other, but you must honor any existing term or contract with your current PRO. At ASCAP, there is no minimum term; BMI also allows resignation with appropriate notice. Works registered at your current PRO generally need to be re-registered at the new one after the switch.
Q: Does BMI automatically register my songs when I upload to DistroKid?
A: No. BMI registration is completely separate from music distribution. DistroKid handles master recording distribution to streaming platforms; BMI registration is a separate manual process you must complete on BMI's website for each song you want to track.
Q: What are BMI "work registrations" and why do they matter?
A: A work registration is BMI's record of a specific composition — its title, writers, publishers, splits, and ISRCs. When Spotify or a radio station reports plays to BMI, BMI matches those reports against work registrations to determine who gets paid. Without a work registration for a song, BMI has no record to match against, and royalties for that song go unmatched regardless of how many times it plays.
Q: How long does it take for BMI royalties to appear after I register?
A: BMI distributes quarterly, with approximately a 9–12 month lag from performance to payment. A song streamed in Q1 of one year may not appear in a BMI distribution until Q4 of that year or early the following year. This lag is standard across all PROs and reflects the time needed for usage data to flow from platforms through BMI's processing systems.
Sources
- BMI Annual Report FY2022 — $1.573 billion in royalty distributions (last published before going for-profit)
- The MLC — Unmatched Royalties — Registration and metadata errors as leading causes of unmatched royalties
- CISAC Global Collections Report 2024 — €12.59 billion in global royalty collections in 2024
- Copyright Royalty Board — US performance royalty rate proceedings