News

Eric Clapton Garners Another BMI “Million Air” Certificate

15 Apr 10

In the Spring 2010 edition of the trade magazine, BMI MusicWorld, it was announced that Eric Clapton received another BMI Million Air Certificate at ceremonies held in London on 6 October 2009. Million Air Certificates are presented to songwriters in recognition of songs which receive two million or more U.S. radio and television performances. At the 2009 Awards event, the certificate was presented to Eric to acknowledge 5 Million performances of "Wonderful Tonight". BMI has noted that one million back-to-back performances of a three-minute song would take 5.7 years. So, if "Wonderful Tonight" was played continuously 5 million times, it would take about 28 YEARS to accomplish!

EC is no stranger to these BMI Million Air Certificates. Here’s a run down of others he has picked up since 2001:

Wonderful Tonight (Eric Clapton)
2006 – 4 Million Performances
2001 – 3 Million Performances

Layla (Eric Clapton, Jim Gordon)
2008 – 7 Million Performances
2005 – 6 MIllion Performances
2002 – 5 Million Performances

Tears In Heaven (Eric Clapton, Will Jennings)
2005 – 4 Million Performances

My Father’s Eyes (Eric Clapton)
2005 – 2 Million Performances

Lay Down Sally (Eric Clapton, George Terry)
2004 – 3 Million Performances

BMI (Broadcast Music, Inc.) collects license fees on behalf of songwriters, composers and music publishers and distributes them as royalties to those members whose works have been performed.