Milestone for BMI: More Than $1 Billion in Music Royalties

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In 2015, the music licensing agency BMI reached $1 billion in revenue for the first time, and Michael O’Neill, the company’s chief executive, predicted that it would take another three years before the agency could, after expenses, pay $1 billion in royalties to its songwriters and music publishers.

BMI reached its goal one year early.

The organization, whose hundreds of thousands of members include stars like Taylor Swift, Ed Sheeran and Sting, announced on Thursday that it had $1.13 billion in revenue and distributed $1.02 billion in royalties during its most recent fiscal year, which ended in June. BMI and other performing rights organizations, like its rival Ascap, collect money whenever songs are played on the radio, streamed online or piped into a restaurant.

“Revenue is a great number,” Mr. O’Neill said in an interview, “but distributions are actually what goes into a songwriter’s pocket.”

Still, the value of the music publishing business, the side of the industry that deals with the copyrights for songwriting and composition, keeps rising. According to the National Music Publishers’ Association, the United States publishing business generated $2.65 billion last year.