Broadcast Music, Inc. (BMI) has announced that it will distribute more than $732 million in royalties for the 2006-2007 fiscal year to its (presumably) starving songwriters, copyright owners, and composers. This is an astonishing 8% increase since last year. BMI is giving "madd props" and attributing the rise to its robust music catalog, the successful licensing of music with a wide range of media, revenue growth in foreign markets, and corporate whores like will.i.am.
Revenues from various media sources, including cable, video services, and satellite audio, grew by $11 million, and revenue from restaurant, retail, and service establishments grew to more than $93 million. The overall estimate of record-setting revenues was over $839 million. This is a milestone for BMI, as these increases in revenue represent the highest annual revenues and royal distributions ever reported by a performing rights society.
So, I formally tip my hat to you, BMI, king of all kings. If it wasn't for your assimilation into the music world's current viral state, many of us would not have been accustomed to such musical honesty as that of will.i.am.
An excerpt from will.i.am's partially misogynistic hit, "I Got It From My Mama":
And if the girl real pretty,Nine times out of ten,
She pretty like her mama.
And if her mama real ugly,
I guarantee ya she gon' be ugly like her mama.
Truer words have never been spoken. will.i.am. is like the Henry David Thoreau of our times, and BMI is like the family pencil factory that Thoreau worked at. And if that makes Fergie the current Ralph Waldo Emerson, then I would be obliged to say that we are in good hands. Cheers to you, BMI. Thanks for making 2007 "the year of years."