NEW YORK - December 18, 2001 - BMI today announced that it has signed long-term music licensing agreements covering MSNŽ Music and Yahoo!. These sites are some of the most successful, highly trafficked music sites on the web and the agreements will cover all public performances of the approximately 4.5 million songs and musical works in the BMI repertoire.
"We are happy that we have been able to arrive at equitable agreements that help to build the Internet as a legitimate venue for the performance of BMI music. Since we signed the industry's first music performance agreement for the web in 1995, we have focused on creating agreements that work for our licensees, songwriters and publishers alike," said Richard Conlon, Vice President, Marketing and Business Development, Media Licensing, BMI. "These most recent agreements underscore our dedication and that of our licensees to developing the digital music market."
The agreements will cover the MSN Music service and Yahoo!. Once payment and performance data is received, fees collected from the public performances on the sites will be distributed as royalties to the songwriters, composers and music publishers of the works BMI represents.
"This agreement with BMI will enable visitors to MSN Music to have access to millions of songs from popular BMI songwriters," said Benjamin Kilgore, general manager, MSN Music. "We are committed to delivering the best digital music experience to consumers and today's announcement, coupled with our unique technology, will make it even easier for consumers to discover their favorite artists and new artists on MSN Music."
"Yahoo! is firmly committed to ensuring that artists and songwriters are fairly compensated for the public performance of their music," said David Goldberg, general manager, music, Yahoo!. "BMI has played a lead role in that regard, and we are please to have entered into this agreement with them."
Founded in 1940, BMI is an American performing rights organization that represents approximately 350,000 songwriters, composers and music publishers from around the world and in all genres of music. Through its music performance and reciprocal agreements, it grants businesses and media access to its repertoire of approximately 4.5 million musical works. It was one of the first established music companies to embrace the Internet to proactively develop new revenue streams for songwriters.