Yeah, but you don’t know he licensed it to BMI. And you don’t know they paid the license fee. People using music and not paying the license fee is a problem that is endemic. If she did, then all she’s gotta do is say, “Hey, I paid the license fee. If he won’t let me use it, then he’s in breach of contract.”
Most likely, the truth is somewhere between what you say and I say. In any event, it’s a tiny matter. Not a big issue.
I have several Petty albums in my Rhapsody download que that have their license renewed every month. I suspect he gets a proportional fee based on the fee I paid to Rhapsody and the songs that need to be licensed to my MP3 player. I suspect it would amount to no more than a nickle a month, but I think I will delete them all because I really don’t want him to have a nickle of my money after this.