Director, Distribution (Music Nation) Nashville, TN, United States

BMI is a mission-driven organization at the forefront of music rights and creator advocacy. Celebrating over 80 years of service to songwriters, composers, music publishers and businesses, BMI is a global leader in music rights management. Currently representing the public performance rights in over 25 million musical works created and owned by more than 1.4 million artists. BMI negotiates music license agreements and distributes the fees it generates as royalties to its affiliated writers and publishers when their songs are publicly performed.

About the Role

Great music deserves accurate, trusted distribution.

As Director, Distribution – Music Nation, you’ll lead the royalty distribution operations supporting Music Nation, overseeing matching and identification, funds management, quarterly distributions, quality assurance, payment methodologies and market share calculations. You’ll play a key role in helping BMI deliver Rights Administration and Distribution services for an international collective management organization across both mechanical and performing rights.

This role sits at the intersection of royalty operations, repertoire integrity, data quality, technology and stakeholder partnership. You’ll ensure distribution processes are accurate, scalable and aligned with Music Nation’s licensing strategy while working across BMI to strengthen controls, improve data quality, manage operational risk and enhance the systems and processes that support distribution.

You’ll also help build BMI’s broader multi-right and multi-territory administration capabilities, bringing together operational leadership, analytical thinking, industry expertise and continuous improvement to support both today’s distribution cycles and future growth.

Position Summary

Direct, plan, and oversee all royalty distribution activities supporting Music Nation, including matching and identification, funds management, quarterly distributions, and quality assurance. Responsible for establishing and maintaining royalty payment methodologies, market share calculations, and royalty distributions.

This position serves as a key operational leader supporting BMI’s delivery of Rights Administration and Distribution services to Music Nation and helps establish the organization’s capability to manage mechanical and performing rights on behalf of an international collective management organization. The role ensures repertoire integrity across publisher, writer, society, and Music Nation data sources and supports the successful execution of Music Nation’s licensing and distribution strategy.

FUNCTIONS OF THE JOB:

Essential Functions: which may be representative but not all-inclusive of those commonly associated with this position.

• Lead all royalty distribution activities supporting Music Nation, including matching and identification, funds management, methodology and market share management, and quarterly distribution processing.
• Serve as Music Nation’s subject matter expert for royalty distribution standards and industry data exchange initiatives, representing the organization in industry forums and discussions with societies and other stakeholders to help support evolving rights administration and distribution needs.
• Own and oversee quality assurance strategies that support Music Nation’s quarterly distribution cycles, with particular focus on radio, live concert, and general licensing markets.
• Ensure distribution data integrity through production cycle monitoring, reconciliation testing, variance analysis, and issue resolution across internal systems and third-party data sources.
• Identify, assess, and mitigate operational risk related to distribution processes, vendor inputs, and reporting outputs.
• Monitor changes to Music Nation License Agreements and ensure that distribution practices are appropriately aligned with any license agreement change. Work across the distribution supply chain to ensure the appropriate on-boarding of new licenses from inception through to distribution.
• Partner with internal stakeholders to translate complex data into clear, actionable insights for operational, leadership, and external audiences.
• Partner with SoundExchange team supporting the neighboring rights management and distribution for Music Nation
• Support prioritization, workload planning, and process improvement efforts to ensure timely and accurate distribution outcomes.
• Develop operational procedures, workflows, controls, and service standards supporting Music Nation royalty distribution management.
• Monitor and improve data quality, operational performance, and processing accuracy through reporting, audits, and quality assurance reviews.
• Own market share assessments used for license fee allocations and ongoing rate settings.
• Collaborate with Licensing, Rights Administration, Customer Service, International Relations, Technology, and Product teams to support Music Nation business objectives.
• Participate in business requirements definition, testing, implementation, and enhancement of Music Nation distribution platforms and supporting technologies.
• Maintain compliance with BMI policies, industry standards, copyright requirements, and Music Nation service commitments.
• Identify opportunities for automation, process improvement, and operational scalability.
• Prepare and deliver operational metrics, readiness reporting, and executive updates to leadership.
• Support Music Nation service readiness initiatives and the ongoing development of BMI’s multi-right and multi-territory administration and distribution capabilities.
• Perform additional duties as assigned.

Supervisory Responsibilities

• Directly supervises managers, team leads, analysts, and/or operational specialists supporting Music Nation royalty distribution functions.
• Carries out supervisory responsibilities in accordance with BMI policies and applicable laws. Responsibilities include interviewing, hiring, training, coaching, performance management, succession planning, workload prioritization, and employee development.
• Provides leadership across all locations for operational resources supporting distribution activities.

POSITION QUALIFICATION REQUIREMENTS

Education

• Bachelor’s degree from an accredited four-year college or university or equivalent combination of education and experience.
• Concentration in Music Business, Business Administration, Information Systems, or related field preferred.
• Extensive knowledge of music publishing, copyright administration, and collective rights management.

Experience

• Minimum 8-10 years of progressive experience in music publishing, repertoire administration, copyright operations, collective management, or related rights distribution disciplines.
• Experience managing teams and operational processes.
• Experience with industry standards such as CWR, CAF, CISAC, and related music rights management frameworks preferred.
• Experience working with international repertoire administration and distribution preferred.

Skills and Abilities: which may be representative but not all-inclusive of those commonly associated with this position.

• Expert knowledge of music publishing operations, repertoire administration, and royalty distribution methods.
• Strong understanding of mechanical and performing rights distribution.
• Excellent leadership, coaching, and employee development skills.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills.
• Strong analytical and problem-solving abilities.
• Strong project and process management skills.
• Demonstrated ability to lead cross-functional initiatives.
• Ability to balance strategic priorities with day-to-day operational execution.
• Strong stakeholder management and relationship-building skills.
• Experience analyzing large datasets and identifying data integrity issues.
• Ability to work effectively in a fast-paced, evolving environment.
• Proficiency in Microsoft Office applications and enterprise business systems.
• Commitment to quality, accuracy, and continuous improvement.

What Success Looks Like

• You lead accurate, timely and well-controlled royalty distributions for Music Nation across matching, identification, funds management, market share and quarterly processing.
• You establish clear distribution methodologies, procedures, controls and service standards that support both operational consistency and Music Nation’s evolving business needs.
• You use data, reconciliation, variance analysis and quality assurance to identify issues early, protect distribution integrity and drive continuous improvement.
• You balance strategic priorities with day-to-day execution, keeping quarterly distribution cycles on track while improving scalability and operational efficiency.
• You build strong partnerships across Licensing, Rights Administration, Customer Service, International Relations, Technology, Product and external stakeholders to resolve complex issues and improve end-to-end outcomes.
• You translate complex royalty, repertoire and market-share data into clear insights and recommendations for operational teams, leadership and external audiences.
• You identify opportunities for automation and technology enhancement that improve accuracy, reduce risk and strengthen BMI’s ability to support multi-right and multi-territory administration.
• You develop a high-performing team with strong technical knowledge, clear priorities and a consistent focus on quality, accountability and service.

Why Join Us?

Distribution is where rights, data and value come together.

At BMI, accurate royalty distribution is central to delivering value to the creators, publishers and partners we serve. As Director, Distribution (Music Nation), you’ll have the opportunity to lead a highly visible operation supporting an international collective management organization while helping expand BMI’s capabilities across mechanical and performing rights.

You’ll work across teams, markets and technologies to strengthen distribution processes, improve data integrity, manage operational risk and help build scalable solutions for a growing multi-right, multi-territory service model.

If you’re energized by complex royalty operations, international rights management, data-driven decision making and building teams and processes that deliver accurate outcomes, we’d love to meet you!

We take care of our people, here’swhat you can expect when joining the team:

• Medical, Dental, and Vision Insurance
• 401K with employer match on 100% of the first 4%.
• Flexible Spending Accounts
• Hybrid Office Schedule & Remote Friday’s
• Short-Term & Long-Term Disability Benefits
• Paid Vacation & Sick/Personal Time
• 12 Paid Holidays
• Summer Half-Days
• Company Paid Life Insurance
• Up To 12 weeks Paid Parental Leave
• Tuition Assistance Program
• Commuter Benefits (New York)
• Employee Resource Groups
• Entertainment discounts and access to BMI concerts and events in our offices
• Employee appreciation events and holiday parties hosted at all office locations