BMI (for Broadcast Music, Inc.) was born 14 years ago when radio broadcasters decided that the venerable ASCAP (for American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers demanded too much in performance royalties. As a rival music-licensing agency. BMI had a scrawny infancy: almost all competent U.S. songwriters were members of ASCAP. For a while, until peace was patched up, the networks had to draw heavily on tunes in the public domain—and Stephen Foster's Jeanie with the Light Brown Hair became a new hit at 87.
But in 14 years BMI has grown husky, with a big pool of music and composers...
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