BMI Launches Revamped Royalty Dashboard and ‘Fully Featured’ iOS App, Targets Continued Customer Service Improvements

Alison Smith, BMI’s EVP, chief distribution and publisher relations officer, who today announced a revamped royalty dashboard. Photo Credit: Broadcast Music, Inc.

Broadcast Music, Inc. (BMI) has officially launched a revamped royalty dashboard that it says will afford member songwriters and composers “greater transparency and insight into their earnings.” The for-profit PRO unveiled the bolstered dashboard today, via a formal release as well as a letter (penned by president and CEO Mike O’Neill) to affiliates. Beginning with the former, BMI described the offering as one component of its redesigned online platform and “broader growth plan to enhance its overall affiliate customer service experience.”

Besides providing an “intuitive, user-friendly experience” and a “fully interactive view” of statements as well as their song-specific details, this dashboard is said to boast breakdowns of top-performing works, “quarterly and annual earnings trends,” and international data.

Looking ahead to the future, BMI also noted that members can now access the online services portal through mobile web browsers and a new iOS app. An Android version will arrive “soon,” per the PRO, with the overarching online platform serving as “the foundation for further enhancements and new capabilities, including additional self-service options and a publisher focused dashboard to be launched as part of a later phase.”

Addressing the development, BMI publisher relations officer Alison Smith highlighted the “enthusiastic response” that the dashboard has received.“We’re excited to introduce the first iteration of BMI’s Royalty Dashboard through the redesigned OLS Platform as part of our commitment to delivering tools that empower our music creators,” communicated the nearly three-decade BMI exec Smith. “Based on the feedback from an initial focus group of our songwriters and composers, we’re thrilled to report their enthusiastic response to the Dashboard’s intuitive features, particularly the ability to consolidate song performance earnings and filter by source.”

Shifting to the aforementioned letter sent to affiliates, BMI CEO Mike O’Neill largely covered the same points as in the release. However, the exec also emphasized that “there’s much more to come” in terms of BMI’s “comprehensive” customer service buildout.

“This is the latest offering in our overall plans to elevate your BMI experience,” wrote O’Neill. “Last week, we announced the launch of our new dedicated customer service department with a specialized team standing by to address your questions, along with a new toll-free centralized customer service number, 844-BMI-4255, now in place. These upgrades are part of phase one of our comprehensive affiliate customer service initiative and there’s much more to come.”

Of course, it’ll be worth keeping an eye out for these and other improvements at BMI, which last month completed a $100 million affiliate payout in connection with its sale to New Mountain Capital.

Meanwhile, BMI’s ASCAP rival, currently touting itself as the lone non-profit PRO in the States, reported record 2023 revenue in late February, and SESAC earlier in April expanded its music services division.