Rate Court Approves Interim BMI Streaming Fee

The BMI rate court has approved an interim license agreement for radio stations that stream their programming on the Internet. The agreement is available to radio stations represented by the Radio Music License Committee. The RMLC and BMI have been involved in a proceeding in the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York to determine final license fees and terms for broadcasting BMI-licensed music over-the-air and on the Internet.
The RMLC and NAB believe that since radio stations already pay BMI fees for on-air use, that’s enough. BMI says streaming is a further use of the music and requires a separate fee, 1.8% of gross revenues from station Web sites, the same as the proposed over-the-air broadcast rate.
BMI and the RMLC agreed to the Internet streaming license as an interim measure pending the outcome of the rate court proceeding. The agreement will be offered to a majority of U.S. radio stations that are re-broadcasting their signals on the Internet.
That’s about 1,800 stations according to BRS Media.
BMI’s interim fees for stations already covered by a BMI blanket license will be 1.605% of the station’s streaming Internet revenue. This rate is the same as the interim rate those stations pay BMI for over-the-air broadcasting. The interim fees may be based on
the court’s final decision in the rate proceeding.