BMI was founded by radio executives in 1939 to provide competition in the field of performing rights, to assure royalty payments to writers and publishers of music not represented by the existing performing right organizations, and to provide an alternative source of licensing for all music users. The company was established as competition for ASCAP, which had dominated the music-licensing industries for decades.

A non-profit making entity, BMI was the first performing rights organization in the United States to represent songwriters of blues, country, jazz, rhythm & blues, gospel, folk, Latin, and ultimately, rock & roll. During the 1940s and 1950s, BMI was the primary licensing organization for Country artists and R&B artists, while ASCAP centered on more established Pop artists. Also during this time, BMI expanded its repertoire of classical music and now represents the majority of the members of the prestigious American Academy of Arts and Letters and the winners of 29 Pulitzer Prizes for Music. ASCAP has slowly embraced more genres of music.

In recent years, BMI has set the benchmark for performing right collections and distributions. In 2007, it will distribute more than $732 million in royalties to the songwriters, composers and copyright owners it represents, an eight percent increase over the prior fiscal year. The rise in revenues is attributed to the company's robust music catalog, successful licensing of music across a diverse range of media, revenue growth in foreign markets, and aggressive targeting of businesses that sell music and may play for-sale music in a retail establishment. BMI also posted record-setting revenues of more than $839 million in 2007, up seven percent from the prior year. This milestone represents the highest annual revenues and royalty distributions ever reported by a performing rights society. BMI also announced that overhead dropped to 12.7 percent, the lowest in the company's history.

SESAC touts its small size: If the phrase 'quality vs. quantity' ever mattered, SESAC is the place. While SESAC is the smallest of the three U.S. performing rights organizations, size is its largest advantage. SESAC prides itself on developing individual relationships with both songwriters and publishers.

Whereas ASCAP and BMI operate on a not-for-profit basis, SESAC retains some income as profit. While ASCAP and BMI distribute all performance royalty income to their composer and publisher affiliates (less an administrative fee), SESAC retains an undisclosed amount of performance royalty income. SESAC is also unique among the US performing rights organisations in that it does not offer open membership – one must be approved to join.