BMI Expands Royalty Tracking as Soundmouse Acquires On Music

BMI is expanding its audiovisual royalty infrastructure again, with Soundmouse acquiring cue-sheet and music-data specialist On Music. The move follows BMI’s completion of its Soundmouse acquisition in June and strengthens a technology stack designed to identify music used in film, television and other audiovisual productions.

What changed

BMI completed its acquisition of Soundmouse in June 2026.
Soundmouse has now acquired On Music.
On Music specializes in cue sheets, rights administration and music data processing.
BMI says the combination should improve matching, reporting and royalty collection across the audiovisual market.

Digital music technology representing royalty tracking and rights data

Why cue sheets matter

A cue sheet records the music used inside an audiovisual production. It can identify the composition, writer, publisher, duration, usage type and other information needed by performance-rights organizations and rights administrators.

When that data is incomplete or inaccurate, royalties can be delayed, misdirected or remain unmatched. For composers working across television, advertising, film, games and streaming video, good metadata can directly affect income.

BMI is building a larger data infrastructure

BMI originally announced its Soundmouse acquisition as a way to create one of the most comprehensive global cue-sheet databases. Soundmouse already works across several territories and uses technology to automate parts of cue-sheet creation and monitoring.

Adding On Music broadens that capability. BMI says the company brings specialist expertise in data processing, rights administration and cue-sheet workflows, all areas where small errors can scale into large royalty problems.

Why it matters for composers: the audiovisual royalty business depends on identifying exactly where music was used. Better data does not create a new royalty rate, but it can improve the chance that money reaches the correct writer or publisher.

The audiovisual market is becoming more important

Music appears in an expanding range of video formats, including streaming series, short-form content, games, branded entertainment and global broadcast catalogs. That growth creates more licensing opportunities but also more complex reporting.

A production can cross borders quickly while the associated rights information passes through multiple companies and collecting societies. Automated matching and standardized data are therefore becoming strategic infrastructure for the music business.

What independent composers should do

Technology can improve matching, but creators still need accurate registrations. Writers should make sure titles, alternative titles, writer splits, publisher information and work identifiers are correct across their PRO and publishing systems.

When music is placed in a production, composers should also keep records of contracts, episode information and cue-sheet details where possible. A sophisticated rights database works best when the source metadata is clean.

Artist performing live representing creators whose music generates royalties

Rights technology is becoming a competitive advantage

As music catalogues grow and uses become more fragmented, rights organizations are investing heavily in data. The challenge is no longer only negotiating licenses. It is processing huge volumes of usage information accurately enough to distribute revenue at scale.

BMI’s Soundmouse strategy shows how central that infrastructure has become. For creators, the success of these systems will be measured in a simple way: whether more legitimate uses of their music are identified and paid correctly.