A2IM High! / The State of Independents

aim-300x300_2015Celebrating its big double digits birthday, A2IM’s Indie Week marks ten years of DIY June 22nd through June 25 at Tribeca Grand in NYC. Free to all A2IM members, this year’s 2 day conference will devote one day to Licensing & Publishing, and the second to Marketing & Revenue. The conference boasts a bevy of pundits across multiple industries, with speakers representing Beggars Group, Record Store Day, JetBlue, Rough Trade, The Orchard, and oodles of other influencers.  Speaking of, Play MPE® reps will of course be in the house!   Notably, for those who’ve registered to join, Play MPE® will be participating in A2IM’s executive one-on-one meetings.  And as ever, you don’t want to miss the chance to connect with Mz. Laurie Gail (laurie.gail@plaympe.com) while at the conference.  She’ll be happy to chat with you about how Play MPE® can help you with your next promo priority.

The American Association of Independent Music launched in 2004, with the …well, aim of promoting business opportunity as well as providing advocacy, representation, and networking opportunities to the independent label community. The annual Indie Week provides a welcomed chance for like-minded industry professionals to share perspectives on a myriad of issues and their impact on independent music, for labels, artists, and beyond.  In particular, A2IM focuses heavily on ensuring fair trade, as well “a seat at the table” for members with regards to new technology opportunities, access to media, collective purchasing, new business, and branding. Lest we forget, independent music accounts for over 35% of the U.S. market share, per Billboard. (How ya like them apples?)

Tim Lee of Tummy Touch Music is charged this year with moderating Indie Week’s panel on synchronized licensing of music across multiple media platforms (audio and visual). Keep your ears and eyes peeled!  With music copyright law revisions currently being debated in Washington, A2IM President Rich Bengloff will present A2IM’s sound recording-owner advocacy initiatives and moderate a panel including reps from the industry’s creator community.

We welcomed the opportunity to catch up with Rich recently. Charming and appropriately laid back in demeanor, Rich shared with us his highlights of the upcoming event.  “All of our panels are how- to panels ‘cause that’s what our members have told us they want. It used to be you’d have the president of a technology company coming in talking about how wonderful they were and really doing a sales pitch. Instead, we prefer to have the less senior people come to explain how to better monetize your music on YouTube, or how to pitch synch licensing people whether they work for an ad agency or music supervisors for films.  How do we approach here, how do we do it? They’re more educational than everything else so we always find that very exciting.” A truly independent approach. Bengloff continued, “Ones this year that we think are pretty different from what we’ve done. We have number of legal members getting together to do a panel called ‘The Art of the Deal.’”

Another exciting and noteworthy topic likely to affect many members is the evolution of “release day.”  The red letter day’s impact will be addressed in a panel appropriately featuring members of Record Store Day. “They’re going to talk about how there are new global street dates, moving from Tuesdays to Fridays, to their chagrin.  They’re going to talk about how they’re coping with that. But, at the same time, talk about their new promotion which is called Vinyl Tuesdays. The people from the two services who do the tracking have been kind enough to say to independent retail, you know the people who we all love as opposed to a small section in an electronics store or a book store– the real record stores– They’re going to allow them to put the vinyl out on Tuesdays before new release day.  So, special vinyl, and it will be included in the first week’s sales for new releases so it will almost be like record store day every single week!” Music to our indie, vinyl-loving ears.

Bengloff shared with us the vision and goals of A2IM: “Basically we represent over 350 music labels. Our focus is on advocacy. We spend time in Washington, state legislatures, commerce to ensure all our members are fairly paid and that we get parity in terms of access.” (One can hear the smile in his voice as Rich interjects “You help with that right?”)  Yeah we do!  Bengloff continued, emphasizing the need for fairness in terms of monetization and “that we’re treated the way we should be treated. On our website, per Billboard magazine, not per me, we’re 35.1% of the industry. My number would be bigger, but I’ll take Billboard’s number and be very happy with it.  We just want to make sure our members are being treated equitably and fairly. In addition to our 350 plus label members we have over 150 associate members, people like your company who bring us to market. There’s a lot of outsourcing in our community ’cause a lot of the members are very small. So companies like Play MPE® bring us to market and give us access we wouldn’t otherwise have via resources we couldn’t have internally due to the costs on our own.  “It takes a village,” this reporter chuckled. “That’s a good line actually, I may steal that.” It’s yours, Rich!

Rich has been at A2IM for nearly 9 years, and has seen the industry’s climate morph alongside previous and current economic realities. One constant remains true, as Rich noted.  “There’s only 168 hours in a week. And due to independent promoters, the cost, we weren’t really able to get access, and we still have problems, notwithstanding Play MPE®’s help, getting terrestrial over the air radio play.”  The limits of access have also extended to retail, where in the past, as Rich explained “you had to pay cooperative advertising (effectively stocking fees),  getting the right positioning on shelves, and the number of copies you wanted into the store. So I can assure you that independent market share back then wasn’t 35.1 percent. So this organization got formed and is celebrating its 10th anniversary this month, to make sure in the new economy that we wouldn’t have those same barriers to entry.”  A noble cause indeed.

 Info here re: A2IM Registration:  June 22-25 in NYC. Daytime panels, presentations, and Executive One-on-One Sessions will take place at Tribeca Grand Hotel, 2 Ave of the Americas, NYC.  http://a2im.org/events/indie-week-2015/

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