BMI Nashville

Broadcast Music, Inc. (BMI) Nashville is the Nashville office of BMI, one of the three major performing rights organizations in the United States, alongside ASCAP and SESAC. BMI Nashville was established to represent songwriters, composers, and music publishers operating primarily out of Nashville, Tennessee, and it serves as a central institution within the city's music industry infrastructure. The organization collects licensing fees from venues, broadcasters, streaming services, and other entities that publicly perform music, then distributes royalties to its affiliated artists and rights holders. Nashville has developed into a major hub for country music, gospel, Americana, and other genres, and BMI Nashville has played an integral role in supporting the creative community and protecting intellectual property rights.

In 2022, BMI completed a significant organizational shift when it transitioned from a non-profit structure to a for-profit company under the ownership of private equity firm New Mountain Capital. The move made BMI the first major performing rights organization in the United States to operate on a for-profit basis, a development that drew considerable attention across the music industry and raised questions about how the change might affect royalty rates and songwriter relationships going forward.

History

BMI was founded nationally in 1940 as a direct response to the licensing practices of ASCAP, which had been founded in 1914 and had dominated the performance rights field for the prior quarter century. Broadcasters objected to ASCAP's rate increases. Many country and blues songwriters felt ASCAP largely ignored them. The creation of BMI represented a significant shift in how the music industry managed copyright and performance fees, offering an alternative for composers and publishers who felt excluded or unfairly treated by ASCAP's traditional model, which had historically favored composers of classical and popular music rooted in the Tin Pan Alley tradition.

Nashville was already emerging as a significant center for country music production by the time BMI was founded. The Grand Ole Opry, which had been broadcasting on WSM radio since 1927, had established the city as a national institution for country music performance and radio. Numerous recording studios operated throughout the city, and a growing community of professional songwriters was taking shape. It wasn't long before Nashville got its own BMI office to serve that expanding population of composers and musicians. The Nashville office grew in importance as the city's music industry expanded dramatically throughout the mid-twentieth century, coinciding with the rise of artists like Hank Williams, Patsy Cline, and countless others who recorded in Nashville studios and needed organized structures for registering and collecting royalties on their compositions.

BMI Nashville's growth paralleled the city's transformation into "Music City." As Nashville's recording industry matured in the 1950s and 1960s, the BMI office became an increasingly important clearinghouse for licensing and royalty distribution. The organization maintained databases of musical compositions and their respective owners, infrastructure that became essential as the complexity of music rights management grew. By the 1970s, BMI Nashville had become an established fixture in the city's music business, working closely with publishers, recording studios, and entertainment venues to ensure proper licensing and fair compensation for creative works.

Cable television arrived in the 1980s, requiring new licensing frameworks. Satellite radio followed in the 1990s. Then came on-demand streaming in the 2000s. Each wave of new technology required BMI to build new tracking and licensing systems. Streaming proved especially complex: platforms like Spotify and Apple Music generate vast quantities of micro-royalties across millions of plays, demanding data infrastructure far more sophisticated than what radio-era licensing required. BMI Nashville's operations expanded accordingly to handle the volume and variety of digital performance data flowing through those systems on behalf of its affiliated writers and publishers.

In January 2026, Todd Horvath was named BMI President and Chief Operating Officer. He divides his time between the company's New York and Nashville offices. His appointment reflected Nashville's continued centrality within BMI's overall operations.

Leadership

Historically, BMI's executive leadership has maintained a strong connection to its Nashville operations given the volume of country, Americana, and gospel repertoire administered through that office. Todd Horvath serves as BMI President and COO as of early 2026, a role announced in January of that year. He splits his time between BMI's Nashville and New York offices, a structure that reflects the organization's dual centers of gravity within the American music industry.

Nashville's office has also seen internal staff activity in recent years. MaryAnn Keen has served as a visible Nashville-based staff member and has hosted events at the Nashville office, including No. 1 party celebrations for affiliated songwriters. In 2025, BMI announced several promotions within its Nashville team, signaling continued investment in the local operation's capacity and expertise.

No. 1 Party Tradition

One of the most recognized customs at BMI Nashville is the No. 1 party, a celebration held at the Nashville office when a BMI-affiliated songwriter achieves a chart-topping single. The tradition reflects Nashville's deep culture of honoring songwriting craft, where reaching No. 1 on a Billboard country or Americana chart is considered a career milestone worthy of formal recognition. These events typically bring together the songwriter, their collaborators, publishers, and industry colleagues for a celebration in BMI Nashville's lobby or event space on Music Row.

Recent examples show the tradition continuing actively. Singer-songwriter Hudson Westbrook celebrated his first-ever No. 1 at BMI Nashville for the song "House Again," an event documented and shared by BMI through its official news channels. Jackson Dean held a second No. 1 party at the Nashville office for "Heavens To Betsy," with MaryAnn Keen of BMI Nashville on hand as host. These events are a small but meaningful part of how BMI Nashville maintains its relationship with working songwriters beyond administrative functions. They're also a reminder that behind every licensing transaction is a creative career.

Programs and Initiatives

BMI Nashville runs several recurring programs designed to connect emerging songwriters with industry professionals and performance opportunities. Rooftop On The Row stands out as one of the most visible. It's an annual outdoor showcase held at BMI's Nashville office on Music Row, offering a live performance platform for rising artists in a setting that draws industry insiders, publishers, and press. The event returned for its eighth season on April 21 with performers including Zach John King and Aniston Pate.

The organization also runs the Next Big Wave Mixer, a networking event sponsored by Studio Bank that brings together rising Nashville songwriters and established industry figures. The program is designed to help emerging writers build professional relationships that can translate into co-writing opportunities, publishing deals, and broader industry exposure. Connections like these remain essential in Nashville's relationship-driven songwriting culture, where who you know often determines what rooms you get into.

Beyond these events, BMI Nashville participates in industry conferences, educational workshops, and songwriter symposiums throughout the year. Staff members regularly engage with aspiring writers and publishers to explain how rights registration, licensing, and royalty distribution work in practice. That knowledge isn't always easy to find. It directly affects a songwriter's ability to earn a living from their work.

Culture

BMI Nashville embodies the cultural values that define Nashville's music community. The emphasis on songwriter craftsmanship and creative collaboration runs deep. The organization has consistently advocated for musical composition as intellectual property deserving protection and fair compensation, a stance that aligns with Nashville's long tradition of treating songwriting as a serious professional craft. Many of the city's most celebrated songwriters, from Willie Nelson and Dolly Parton to contemporary artists working across multiple genres, have registered their works through BMI and relied on its royalty distribution infrastructure to sustain their careers.

The organization's cultural significance extends beyond administrative function. BMI Nashville's involvement with songwriter organizations, its sponsorship of performance events, and its participation in educational initiatives reflect an investment in the health of Nashville's creative community as a whole. The office represents writers and composers across diverse musical traditions, including gospel, Americana, bluegrass, and contemporary pop. This tracks with Nashville's expanding identity as a multigenre music center rather than simply a country music capital.

BMI Nashville's presence on Music Row gives it a symbolic role within the geography of the city's music industry. The Row has long served as the professional heart of Nashville's songwriting and publishing world. BMI's location there puts it in close proximity to the publishers, management firms, and independent studios that form the backbone of Nashville's commercial music ecosystem. The Nashville lobby, used regularly for No. 1 party celebrations and industry events, has itself become a recognizable gathering point within that ecosystem.

Economy

BMI Nashville functions as an important economic institution within Nashville's music industry, which generates billions of dollars in annual economic activity for the region. The organization's primary economic role involves the collection and distribution of royalty payments, moving money from commercial music users to creators and rights holders through a system that touches radio broadcasts, television performances, streaming services, live venue performances, and synchronization licenses for film and television productions.

Publishing houses in Nashville rely on organizations like BMI to handle the complex administrative work of tracking compositions, licensing them, and distributing royalties. This allows publishers to focus on artist development and catalog acquisition. The presence of well-functioning rights management organizations makes Nashville more attractive to music industry professionals and companies, contributing to the city's competitive advantage as a music production center.

BMI Nashville competes directly with ASCAP's Nashville office and with SESAC, which is headquartered in Nashville. A fourth competitor, Global Music Rights (GMR), has grown in prominence since its founding in 2013 and represents a select roster of high-profile songwriters, adding a new dimension to the PRO landscape nationally. BMI and ASCAP are both organizations open to any qualifying songwriter or publisher, while SESAC operates on an invitation-only basis and GMR maintains a highly selective roster. All serve the same core function of licensing public performances and distributing the resulting royalties. The coexistence of multiple major PROs in Nashville underscores the city's weight within the national music industry.

BMI Nashville's role in protecting intellectual property rights encourages composers and songwriters to invest time and resources in creating new music, knowing their work will be registered, tracked, and compensated through established institutional mechanisms. The organization's economic impact extends to supporting music venues, studios, and performance spaces that must obtain proper BMI licenses to legally present music to the public.

Community Involvement

BMI Nashville operates primarily as a business and administrative organization. Still, it maintains an active presence in the city's music community through events, sponsorships, and educational engagement. The BMI office on Music Row serves as a destination for songwriters, composers, and music industry professionals conducting business related to rights registration and licensing matters. Its staff members are known within the industry as knowledgeable resources on publishing and copyright questions.

The organization has supported various initiatives aimed at preserving Nashville's musical heritage and ensuring the long-term health of the songwriting community. Through sponsorships, partnerships, and collaborative projects, BMI Nashville contributes to the broader network of organizations and institutions that sustain Nashville as a distinctive cultural center. Its recurring programs give the office a regular, visible presence beyond its administrative core functions, connecting it to working songwriters at every stage of their careers. Rooftop On The Row, the Next Big Wave Mixer, No. 1 party celebrations, and various one-off showcases and workshops all serve this purpose, reinforcing BMI Nashville's identity as a place where the business and the art of songwriting meet.