BMI Broadcast Music, Inc.

BMI (Broadcast Music, Inc.), an organization that collects performance royalties for songwriters and music publishers in all genres of music, opened its doors in New York in 1940. BMI was the first performance rights organization to represent what was then commonly referred to as rural and race music in the forms of country, gospel, blues, and jazz.

In 1958, BMI established a permanent Nashville office and hired Frances Williams Preston as manager. BMI constructed the first wing of this building in 1964 and expanded it in 1995. This office represents songwriters and music publishers in Memphis, Atlanta, New Orleans, Muscle Shoals and Austin, and played a key role in developing Nashville as Music City, U.S.A.