A2IM: American Association of Independent Music

Posted in News by A2IM

Billboard.biz: “Q&A: A2IM President Rich Bengloff Talks Export Mission to Brazil“
Reggie Ugwu
April 29, 2013

With an eye toward nurturing new revenue streams and increasing their share of the global music market, representatives from 11 independent record labels headed to beautiful Brazil last week to meet with their South American counterparts. The trip was organized by A2IM and funded in part by a federal grant from the International Trade Administration. Delegates from labels including Naxos, Dead Oceans, Yep Roc and VP went looking for new partners in distribution, licensing, touring, performance rights and more. Read the Q & A with Rich Bengloff HERE.

Posted in News by A2IM

A2IM’s annual Board of Directors election opens for voting on Wednesday, May 1^st.  A2IM’s board is elected by a vote of the A2IM label membership with every label member’s primary contact for A2IM possessing the right to vote on behalf of her or his company.  Once again our voting members have an exciting (and large) list of member executives who have stepped up or accepted nomination to run for election to the A2IM board of directors. A2IM’s voting members will be voting to fill four (4) seats from the below list of candidates (alphabetical by first name). Voting closes on Friday, May 24.

The nominees are:

-Alan Galbraith (Wind-up Records)

-Cory Robbins (Robbins Entertainment)

-Damon Sgobbo (Allegro Media Group)

-Denny Stilwell (Mack Avenue Records)

-EJ Johantgen (Prosthetic Records)

-Fabio Acosta (Akela Family Music)

-Glen Barros (Concord Music Group)

-Jamar Chess (Sunflower Entertainment)

-Jeff Waye (Ninja Tune Records)

-Jim Selby (Naxos)

-Josh Norek (Nacional Records)

-Jurgen Korduletsch (Radikal Records/Gummybear International)

-Linda Lucchesi (Simply Grand Music)

-Louis Posen (Hopeless Records)

-Matt Lunsford (Polyvinyl Records)

-Portia Sabin (Kill Rock Stars)

-Richard Burgess (Smithsonian Folkways)

-Robert Williams (335 Records)

-Tim Lee (Tummy Touch Records)

-Todd McCarty (Fearless Records)

A2IM expresses our gratitude to the three board members who, due to term limits, must step down at the end of this term:  Eric Brown (Sub Pop), Dave Hansen (Epitaph) and Tom Silverman (Tommy Boy).  We also thank Jim Selby (Naxos) who will appear on this year’s ballot as an incumbent seeking re-election.  Jim is eligible to run without sitting out a year because he didn’t serve a full 3 year term.  We thank each of these board members for their leadership and commitment to this organization and to the A2IM membership. We look forward to ongoing contributions from each.

Posted in Chapters, News by A2IM

With sincere gratitude for the volunteerism, engagement and support demonstrated by the entire A2IM member community, we’re pleased to announce Naxos’ Randall Foster as the new A2IM chapter chair in Nashville.

Randall will be taking over the duties that have been so marvelously handled for years by A2IM Nashville stalwart, Al McCree (Comedy String Entertainment and formerly Altissimo Recordings).  There is simply no way to aptly express the deep gratitude and affection that A2IM feels for Al.

Randall has been involved in organizing several Nashville chapter events, most recently bringing a number of A2IM members into the Nashville Film-Com Synchs & Drinks cocktail mixer.  We look forward to announcing the next A2IM Nashville chapter event shortly.

Posted in News by A2IM

With final nominees for the LIBBY Awards only a week away, A2IM joins Billboard Magazine in touting our co-hosting sponsor for the awards, Caroline.  HERE is the Billboard item.  Big thanks to Caroline and good luck to all of the LIBBY nominees.

Posted in News by A2IM

Very soon A2IM will be announcing the final nominees for the 2013 A2IM Libera Awards (“LIBBYs”) co-presented by Caroline and turning to our membership to vote for this year’s award winners.

Each A2IM member company is permitted up to 5 voters.  Each member company is invited to select who their LIBBY voters will be by sending an email to Jim Mahoney or Jennifer Masset by Friday, April 19^th.

LIBBY voters must be full-time employees or owners of the member company.

To learn more about the A2IM LIBBYs please go to a2imlibbys.com.  To purchase tickets to attend the June 20^th LIBBY Awards event at Highline Ballroom go to the Brown Paper Ticket Link (and enter the purchase code A2IM – tickets are available for A2IM members only).

A2IM Thanks Our Sponsors

Posted in News, Press Releases by A2IM

Press Release
April 2, 2013

Caroline joins A2IM to sponsor “The LIBBYs”

The American Association of Independent Music (A2IM) is pleased to announce Caroline as a hosting sponsor of the group’s second-annual Libera Awards — an award show for independent artists and labels, nominated and voted on by independent artists and labels. This year’s ceremony will be held on Thursday, June 20 at New York City’s Highline Ballroom.

“In celebration of the 30th anniversary of Caroline and our re-launch as a full-service partner to the independent label and artist community, we are honored to sponsor the 2013 A2IM Libera Awards,” said Dominic Pandiscia, President of Caroline. “It’s a great opportunity to help acknowledge the most impactful and important labels, artists and initiatives in the independent community over the previous year.” Born from the DNA of the successful EMI Label Services division, which defined itself as a successful service company for labels and artists such as Hopeless Records, Welk Music Group, Slash, Tyrese, Raekwon, Five Finger Death Punch, Candlelight and others, Caroline now provides full services including Branding, Synch, Promotion, Marketing, Publicity and more.

A2IM President Rich Bengloff noted, “We are thrilled to have Caroline be one of the two overall co-sponsors of the second-annual Libera awards. We are equally thrilled that the Capitol Music Group has restored the historic Caroline name to the expanded and revitalized Caroline operation, one of the true historic brand names in the history of Independent distribution and a founding member organization of A2IM. We look forward to working with our good friend Dominic Pandiscia and my long-time friend [Executive Vice President/General Manager] Mike Harris to make both the Libera event and Caroline huge successes.”

The second-annual Libera Awards build on the success of last year’s “decidedly buoyant” inaugural ceremony (Billboard), where, as the Wall Street Journal put it, “fans and music executives gathered to pay homage to indie greats and hand out cool, handmade statuettes to the lucky nominees.” Last year’s winners included Bon Iver (Jagjaguwar) who won for Independent Album of the Year; Epitaph / Anti- Records, whose invite-only Tom Waits listening party garnered the Light Bulb Award for Most Creative Marketing Campaign/Idea; and Charles Bradley (Daptone Records) who took home the Road Warrior of the Year, celebrating the hardest-working, most fan-engaged artist. View the full list of last year’s LIBBY winners.

Sponsorship opportunities are still available — if interested please contact Jennifer Masset at jen@a2im.org or 347.742.5633.

The A2IM Libera Awards celebrate the best independent labels, artists, projects and partners in the following categories:

Album of the Year sponsored by Spotify

Label of the Year Award (5 Employees or less worldwide) sponsored by The Orchard

Label of the Year Award (6 Employees or more worldwide) sponsored by ADA

Up and Comer Award sponsored by eMusic celebrating the next independent label superstar artist

Video of the Year

Best Sync Usage for the most creative or most impactful use of independent music in a film/tv/ad campaign

Music Supervisor of the Year sponsored by Silva Screen Music for the music supervisor/licensing person who was especially supportive of independent music labels

Light Bulb Award celebrating the most innovative/creative marketing campaign by an independent label or artist

Hardest Working/Most Engaged Artist celebrating the independent label band/artist that worked hardest at their job or was the most instrumental in promoting their music

Best Live Act celebrating the independent label band/artist that had the best live act

Creative Packaging Award (Physical or Digital) sponsored by A to Z Media celebrating the best or most creative packaging – including bundled packages, premium offerings or artwork/design packaging – from an independent label or artist in the last 12 months

21st Century Award celebrating the service provider or platform that was most beneficial to independent labels and artists

The submission process for this year’s awards has closed. The finalists for each category as determined by a vote of independent music experts from retail, media and music tastemakers will be announced at the end of April.