BMI, the music rights organization that signed Gloria and Emilio Estefan in 1978, opened a new office on Miracle Mile in Coral Gables on Thursday, Oct. 15. Mayor Vince Lago and the Coral Gables Chamber of Commerce cut the ribbon inside the space, and the company says the office is built to serve songwriters, composers and producers across South Florida, Puerto Rico and Latin America.

For anyone who has ever wondered who makes sure the writer of a song gets paid when it plays on the radio, in a restaurant or on a stage, the answer is often BMI. The organization collects money when music is publicly performed and passes it to the people who wrote it. It describes itself as the largest performing rights organization in the United States and says it represents more than 1.5 million songwriters, composers and publishers and over 25 million musical works.

Who came out for the opening

The opening night doubled as a gathering of Latin music names. BMI lists Kike Santander, Arthur Hanlon, Natacha Chacin, Paty B, Boy Wonder, Albert Hype and Mario Quintero Lara among the guests. Play-N-Skillz and SUNTEA handled the DJ sets, and catering came from chef Clay Conley's Buccan and Imoto.

Latin pop singer and songwriter Zulia closed the evening with a live set. She was introduced by Leila Cobo of Billboard, who spoke about the reach of Latin music before the performance.

BMI chief executive Mike O'Neill, chief revenue and creative officer Mike Steinberg and Jesus Gonzalez, the vice president who leads the company's Latin creative team, each spoke during the reception. In their remarks, the executives described Miami as a creative center for Latin music and said the company chose Coral Gables on purpose, wanting a place where writers could meet, work on songs and find a first break, rather than a back office.

A long Miami history, now on Miracle Mile

The Coral Gables address is new. The Miami connection is not. BMI's own history says the company already had a Miami office by around 1950, alongside New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Chicago and Nashville. It signed the Estefans in 1978, and in 1993 it held its first Latin Awards Dinner in Miami, honoring Gloria Estefan, Jon Secada and Miguel Morejon.

Gonzalez, who joined BMI in 2021 after nearly seven years at Universal Music Group, is based in Miami. According to his BMI biography, his team signs and develops new writers, and signings and retentions under him include Peso Pluma, Edgar Barrera, Bizarrap, Ryan Castro and Alvaro Diaz. He also hosts the company's annual Latin Awards.

BMI was founded in 1939 and opened its first office in New York in 1940. The new office puts it on the same stretch of Miracle Mile where Gables residents shop, eat and walk on a weekend.

Why it matters if you write songs

For a resident who writes songs at home, in a band or for other artists, the first step with BMI is affiliation, which is handled online. The company's join page lists a valid email address as the main requirement for a songwriter or composer, and writers under 18 also need a custodial trust bank account set up at a U.S. bank. The one-time processing fee on that page is listed for publishers, not for individual writers.

Joining is what lets a writer collect when a registered song is played in public. Having the company's Latin team now working out of Coral Gables puts that staff a short drive away for writers across Miami-Dade.

How to reach BMI

The new office is on Miracle Mile in downtown Coral Gables. BMI did not publish public visiting hours for the space, so songwriters looking to affiliate or get in touch with the Latin team can start on the company's website, where the Join page walks through writer sign-up and the Contact Us page lists ways to reach staff. Anyone who wants a look at the opening night can find photos and a short video on BMI's news page.

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