The performance rights organization BMI is being bought by a shareholder group led by New Mountain Capital, which holds $45 billion in assets. BMI protects the rights of more than 1.4 million artists and 22.4 million musical works. According to a report from BMI, President and CEO Mike O’Neill and his leadership team will continue to lead the company following the sale, which must still be approved by shareholders. The acquisition is expected to close after Q1 in 2024.
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BMI reports that New Mountain will also reserve additional capital to “fund growth investments, new ventures, and technology enhancements to help accelerate BMI’s long-term plan to maximize distributions for its affiliates and improve the service it provides to songwriters, composers, and publishers.” BMI will also allocate $100 million from the sale to artists in its portfolio in recognition of their creative work in the industry according to performance levels.
“Today marks an exciting new chapter for BMI that puts us in the best possible position to stay ahead of the evolving industry and ensure the long-term success of our music creators,” said O’Neill in a statement. “New Mountain is an ideal partner because they believe in our mission and understand that the key to success for our company lies in delivering value to our affiliates.
“We are excited about the many ways New Mountain will accelerate our growth plan, bringing new vision, technological expertise, and an outstanding track record of strengthening businesses, all of which will help us build an even stronger future for BMI and our songwriters, composers, and publishers,” he concluded.
BMI is hoping to get ahead of new technology in music by selling to New Mountain, as the investment firm will look to advance the performing rights landscape to keep up with the music industry.
“There is tremendous opportunity to modernize this critical part of music infrastructure and ensure that long-term royalty collections for songwriters, composers, and publishers continue to grow,” said Mike Oshinsky, Director at New Mountain, in a statement. “With our support, BMI is ideally positioned to drive this transformation as the only [performing rights organization] in the world to combine an open-door policy to all music creators with the innovation and commercial drive of a for-profit business.”
New Mountain’s acquisition does not change BMI’s payout plan, which is good news for music creators. Ideally, nothing will change except BMI’s forward momentum in the industry. BMI is planning to follow the same distribution targets that it kept this year, which included an 85% payout of licensing revenues. This year, the organization delivered an 11% increase in payouts over its 2022 model.
