BMI splits AI songs into four tiers, only two of them payable

The audio task

A BMI-affiliated songwriter who used ChatGPT for a lyric idea, an AI plugin to clean up a vocal, or a full AI music platform to generate a backing track wants to know which of those, if any, is still a registrable, payable composition. BMI, the second of the two largest US performing rights organisations alongside ASCAP, answers with a tiered framework on its own site rather than a single yes-or-no rule.

What the documents show

BMI's 'BMI and AI' guidance page, as retrieved on 16 September 2026, sorts works into four categories: human-created works without AI; human-created works assisted by AI, such as using an AI plugin to remove background noise; human-created works with partially AI-generated content, such as using an AI platform to create a backing track and then adding original lyrics; and prompt-only AI-generated works with no meaningful human creative contribution. BMI states it accepts registration and pays royalties for the first three categories, provided a work meets 'the minimum threshold for human creativity,' but does not accept prompt-only works, citing platforms such as Suno or Udio used without added human authorship as an example. The page states this threshold follows the US Copyright Office's Copyright Registration Guidance, a policy statement effective 16 March 2023 that set out how the Office examines works containing AI-generated material.

Rights status

BMI states plainly that prompt-only AI works are not copyrightable under current US law and that BMI 'reserves the right to remove a work from the BMI repertoire' if one is improperly registered. BMI also states its own advocacy view, that training AI on copyrighted music without permission is not fair use, as a position it holds and has pressed in Congress and before the Copyright Office, not as a court ruling.

What to check before you use it

This is an editorial checklist. A songwriter should check which of BMI's four categories a specific session actually falls into before registering, since the distinction turns on where the human creative contribution sits, not on which software was used. Anyone already holding a prompt-only registration should check BMI's current guidance on correcting it, since the page states BMI will assist with removal rather than leaving affiliates to guess.

• Which of BMI's four AI-involvement categories does this specific work fall into?
• Does the work meet the Copyright Office's human-creativity threshold that BMI's registration policy follows?
• Have I disclosed AI-generated elements in the way BMI's registration process now allows?

BMI's tiers give a workable sorting tool for a session that mixes human and AI contributions, but the underlying eligibility line still runs through the Copyright Office's own case-by-case standard, not through BMI's categories alone.