BMI wins 138% rate increase and more in Live Nation, AEG court battle

BMI scored a victory for its songwriters in the Southern District Court of New York yesterday.

The PRO’s long-running battle with Live Nation, AEG, and the North American Concert Promoters Association (NACPA) over rates promoters pay songwriters for music performed at live shows has resulted in payments that will now be 138% higher than the historical rate.

Judge Stanton also ruled that the new rate will be applied to an expanded revenue base that includes tickets sold directly onto the secondary market, the portion of ticket service fees received by the promoters, and revenues from box suites and VIP packages.

“While we’re thrilled with this outcome,” Mike O’Neill, BMI’s President & CEO, said in a statement, “we find it incredibly disappointing that it took millions of dollars and years of litigation to get Live Nation, AEG and NACPA to finally pay songwriters, composers, and publishers what they deserve.”

Live Nation sought to downplay the court victory since BMI had asked for more.

“We advocated on behalf of artists to keep their costs down and managed to hold the increase to less than 1/3 of BMI’s proposed increase,” Live Nation said in a statement. “This will cost the performers we work with approximately $15 million a year spread out over thousands of artists, and cost increases for Live Nation directly are not material.”

Fees from BMI and other PROs are included as a show expense in most concert settlements which ultimately does affect the compensation earned by the performing artist.