A2IM: American Association of Independent Music

Posted in News by A2IM

A2IM would appreciate it if all of our members will re-post this item, Tweet it, and share it with your fans & friends.

Among all the sorry carnage and sad tales left by London’s looting fraternity over the last three days, perhaps the most devastating for music lovers was the huge fire that destroyed a Sony warehouse primarily used by independent distribution company PIAS.

A three-story, 20,000 square meter storage home for music from a number of independent labels from the UK and the US including 4AD, Beggars Group, Dead Oceans, Def Jux, Domino, Jagjaguwar, Matador, Ninja Tune, Polyvinyl, Rough Trade, Secretly Canadian, Side One Dummy, Silva Screen, Sub Pop, Too Pure, True Panther, Vagrant, Warp, XL among others. (A full list from PIAS’s website is here).  The warehouse was a temporary home for releases from all manner of indie labels and offshoots, and the extent of its destruction is starting to become tragically apparent.  While the full impact of last night’s events is still emerging, numerous indies have confirmed massive losses.  Beggars Chairman Martin Mills called it a “horrible” setback for the indie sector.

What music fans can do to show their support for the indie label community, and help them survive this disaster is to buy a digital download of an album from any one of the digital retailers going to their local record store while stocks last.

This way, the labels will be able to remanufacture their CD’s and vinyl more quickly, to resupply the record shops who are also affected by the riots.

Alison Wenham, Chairman and CEO of AIM, the UK’s Trade Association for the Independent Music Industry commented: “This is a disaster for the music community, but with the fans’ help, labels and artists will survive. Please show your support for the music community by buying a digital album from an independent label today”.

Posted in News by A2IM

We are writing to let you know of an opportunity to join a multi-industry creator community letter being organized by the US Chamber in support of the proposed PROTECT IP Act legislation.  The text of the letter is here.  A2IM has signed onto this letter. We hope some of our individual members, especially those across the country (in particular those not located in Nashville, NY and California, although we hope those members will sign on to the letter as well), will sign-on separately.  The needs of small and medium sized businesses that employ people and create intellectual property for use at home and abroad resonate with Congress more than any other group. (more…)

Posted in News by A2IM

There is a new 112^th Congress now meeting with almost 100 new members of the House of Representatives and many new Senators as well. We need to educate these new congressional members about our needs as a music community.  Music United is a music community group, of which A2IM is a member, and we have created a brochure to educate new members of Congress and re-educate old members of Congress as to the issues affecting the music community.

Please locate your legislators at this website and then write them a letter, and attach the brochure pdf. The brochure highlights key issues  but your cover letter should express how difficult it for music creators and those that invest in that creation to continue to make a living in the music industry today and how we need their help in fighting piracy, getting fair digital royalties, promoting exports, etc.   Tell your story:  who you are, how many people work at your company, and include stories of your successes and your current hurdles.  Please make it personal!

We know some of this duplicates a prior month call-to-action but repeat messaging is okay!  Frankly, A2IM hears frequently from members of Congress that they don’t hear enough from our community and this lack of communication can lead members of Congress to only hear one side of the story:  the side of Google or the Consumer Electronics lobbyists who paint a picture for your Congress member about how great it is for independent artists and labels if music is free, etc.

Please also share this with your artists and others in our music community!

Posted in News by A2IM

You earn your living, feed your family, pay your rent or mortgage, etc. from there being a healthy music industry.  As such, we hope you’ll join A2IM’s ongoing CALL TO ACTION series and use the below quick and easy link to communicate your support for proposed legislation in Congress that we alerted you to last week.

Just click HERE and enter your home address and hit “send” and an e-mail will be sent to your Senators and Representative.

If you’ve written previously, we implore you to do so AGAIN!

Please help keep this going by writing today and by sharing this with your artists, managers, & friends so that Washington D.C. understands that independent labels and artists need legislative support so that we can continue running our businesses and investing in creating great new music.  This effort, in combination with messaging from our fellow creator community advocates, has resulted in over 50,000 letters reaching members of Congress in the last 12 months.

A2IM’s message has always been that we embrace technology and have numerous initiatives and events to help our members educate one another about ways to successfully adapt and maximize available revenues, but we also believe that the government should support creators’ rights and promote the value of music as a vital contributor to the U.S. economy.

In January, a new Congress convened and the legislative process began again. Fortunately, we’re building on momentum generated last year which included strong statements of support from President Obama’s administration in support of creators’ rights and the value of intellectual property and a push for helpful legislation from supporters of IP and creative works in Congress.  There is new legislation being readied for vote now and your congressional representatives NEED to hear from those most affected by the loss of revenues in the music business.

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Independent label artists have never gotten their fair share of AM/FM commercial radio play due to access issues. This has in part been made up for by not-for-profit public radio stations which have always been more than fair to our community and which have also been responsible for breaking many independent artists. These public radio stations, plus programming entities like NPR, PRI and APM, are all funded in part by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (“CPB”), a private, nonprofit corporation created and funded by Congress in 1967. The CPB is the steward of the federal government’s investment in public broadcasting and now forces within Congress are trying to eliminate that funding.

We ask all of our members, and their artists, to please write Congress to voice their support for public radio by either going to this link http://pol.moveon.org/nprpbs or by going directly to your legislator http://www.usa.gov/Contact/Elected.shtml. Either way, in your own words, please let your President, Senators and Congressman know the importance of public radio to your small businesses and job creation and to the careers of your artists. Please write today! Any questions, please let us know!

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Call To Action To Independent Labels, Creators & Service Providers Who Rely Upon Music Having Value:

For years we have called on government to help fight Piracy including those websites that promote the devaluation of music and disregard the rights of creators by leaking music early and without permission. Both the Obama Administration and the Congress have started to provide creators much needed support in recent months. The U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Agency has taken aggressive action against infringing websites, recently seizing the domain names of 82 sites. Since then ICE, and its Director John Morton, have been taking heat in the blogosphere and in some print media for their actions.  It is imperative that the music community let the Administration know just how vital ICE’s actions are, and how much we appreciate them.

We need to show them some love for their action! PLEASE send a note to John Morton thanking him for what he’s doing.

This letter, which also highlights a recent A2IM press statement, was sent to the Obama administration by A2IM today.  They need to hear from our members across the country now!

Use the A2IM letter as a guide, but please personalize your letter, and write to:

Mr. John T. Morton
Director, United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement
U.S. Department of Homeland Security
Washington, D.C. 20528

Care of : erik.barnett@dhs.gov

And express your support for the current actions of U.S. Homeland Security detailed in the attached link press release and please copy: Rich.Bengloff@a2im.org. This is important so let’s get to work!

Best and happy holidays to all!

The A2IM team