BMI's Barbara Cane to retire after more than 50 years
Barbara Cane will retire from BMI at the end of 2026 after more than five decades with the rights organisation.
BMI confirmed the decision on 20 October in an official announcement titled "Barbara Cane to Retire from BMI After 50 Years of Supporting Songwriters." Cane, its vice-president of worldwide creative, will continue in an advisory role working directly with president and chief executive Mike O'Neill, Music Business Worldwide reported.
O'Neill has led BMI since 2013. He will keep Cane as an adviser after her formal retirement date passes at the close of the year.
BMI is a performing rights organisation. It collects royalties for songwriters and publishers when their music is played on radio, on television or in public venues, then passes that money through to the writers. Creative staff sit between the paperwork and the people.
Cane sits on the creative side of that system. She directed activities for BMI's Pop, Rock and Indie teams, the staff who recruit and support writers and help connect songs with recording and broadcast opportunities. It is relationship work, built slowly.
Her own relationship with BMI began early. She joined part time in 1970 while still in high school, starting in the Song Research department. That is the team that checks ownership details so the right writers get paid.
She stayed. Cane later served as general manager of BMI's Los Angeles office. She then served as vice-president of creative in New York, Los Angeles and London, a run that gave her spells in the company's three main music centres.
In 2017, BMI moved her from vice-president of creative, Los Angeles into the newly created post of vice-president, worldwide creative, Variety reported. The same round of promotions elevated Samantha Cox, Tracie Verlinde, Mason Hunter and Wardell Malloy. O'Neill said at the time that Cane's reputation within the industry was unparalleled, according to Music Week.
External recognition followed that promotion. Cane was featured in Billboard's Women in Music 2011. She was later named one of Billboard's Women in Music Top Executives in 2024, BMI reported.
What makes this stand out is continuity. Fifty years in one company is rare in any business. In music publishing, where a writer can stay with the same rights organisation for an entire career, it means one executive can shape generations of careers from first signing to established catalogue.
