A2IM: American Association of Independent Music

Posted in News by A2IM

Independent music labels and their artists continued to move forward in 2012, repeatedly proving the value we bring to the music industry and fans. As we look back, our 2012 State of the A2IM Indie Community highlights many promotional & financial success stories:

• As reported by Billboard, Independent market share of recorded music sales based upon label ownership rose to 32.57%, we thank our good friends at Billboard for their reporting perspective! By our computations we also note that digital album share has risen to over 39% of market, significantly underscoring that our Independent community sells a body of work, not just singles.
• The increased market share is not a surprise as Independents controlled the top slot on the charts for seven consecutive weeks at #1 on the Billboard 200 with Glassnote’s Mumford & Sons’ ‘Babel,’ Broken Bow’s Jason Aldean’s ‘Night Train,’ and Big Machine’s Taylor Swift’s ‘Red’ [October-November 2012].  During the Fall period diverse acts such as All Time Low- Hopeless, DJ Drama-eOne, Papa Roach- Eleven Seven, Deadmau5- Ultra, Lumineers- Dualtone, Grizzly Bear-Warp, The xx-Beggars/XL, Animal Collective- Domino, Cat Power-Beggars/Matador, Punk Goes Pop-Fearless, The Sword & All That Remains- Razor & Tie and the Nashville Soundtrack-Big Machine all made the Billboard Top 20.
• On the digital performance front, payouts to Independents by our SoundExchange advocates continue to soar! Pandora estimates that Independent music plays represent almost 40% of their steams and Sirius reports Independents are 30-35% of their programming. We thank our friends at Pandora for answering our requests by giving Independent labels an improved portal to submit music and other informational support during the past year, and thank Sirius for providing our diverse programming to their audiences.
• Independents are even seeing improved success at terrestrial radio and we thank Clear Channel for including Independents in their bi-annual programmer label presentations and look forward to increasing the Independent label community’s radio access and share of plays with Clear Channel and other radio groups in 2013.
• A2IM’s export funding initiatives came to fruition this year with the first government funded trade mission to Asia in September, and the MDCP funding grant. We thank the U.S. Department of Commerce ITA, U.S. SBA, NY State, Tennessee and our legislative champions like Congressman Jerry Nadler for making this happen. The Recording Academy support of our export funding initiatives was vital.
• We thank the Recording Academy for their support on many fronts. Critical recognition of Independents included the share of Independent Grammy nominations crossing the 50% level and our community’s 34 wins included major categories like Best New Artist, as well as many best album categories.  Our successes were across the board at many award shows; our members even swept all of the awards at the 11^th annual Americana Music Awards.
• A2IM held its first Libera Awards, where Independents honored fellow Independents, during Indie Week in NYC last June. The event was a sold-out success and received critical acclaim as A2IM members claimed their Libby’s and we honored Beggars’ Martin Mills with a Lifetime Achievement Award! Libera means freedom in Latin; Independents are free and not confined in the mainstream, not dependent, get it? The A2IM “Libby’s” celebrated that freedom and how our community is not limited by established, traditional, orthodox, or authoritarian attitudes, views, or dogmas and open to new ideas.
• Indie Week 2012 continued to grow, with over 500 executives and staff gathering in NYC to discuss issues and learn from each other. In 2012, the focus was on garnering greater publicity access, optimizing YouTube monetization practices, reflecting on digital case studies, and discussing Pan European licensing, among other topics. The schedule was packed with one-on-one networking meetings, panels and roundtables, which led to the fourth annual Indie Roadmap discussion and white paper. We thank our speakers who included Pandora’s Tim Westergren, Free Ride author Rob Levine and keynoter U.S. Intellectual Property Enforcement Coordinator Victoria Espinel.
• We geared up for the launch of the non-invasive Copyrights Alerts program, which aims to reduce unlicensed music acquisition and we thank our colleagues at the RIAA for our inclusion.
• A2IM continued to stay in touch with Washington D.C. to advocate our positions and file on issues ranging from International trade to Copyright regulations. Many of the filings were made at the request of U.S. Government Agencies who approached us for the Independent views. We also practiced advocacy on legislation like IRFA, which we oppose, and as a member of the World Independent Network (WIN) issued the Indie Manifesto.
• We continued to educate our members so they can make informed choices based on understanding all sides of an issue via the weekly Round-up newsletter, committees like DMET and the Licensing & Publishing white papers and meet-ups.  This included a joint event with our AIMP brothers and sisters and networking events around the country at local chapters and during conferences such as SXSW, CMJ, NARM, and Midem (2012 had our largest-ever presence at MIDEM ever (more than 300 members from 135 companies)

As your extra employee, with pride, your A2IM staff takes dozens of calls from its members every week and in this time of need and continued financial challenges it is the pleasure, no honor, of the A2IM staff to support and represent you all, the greatest privilege of our careers. Your A2IM elected board does the same, meeting monthly, annually setting our priorities on your behalf, always all hands on deck.

Independent music labels are diverse in label sizes with hands-on management, allowing for entrepreneurial speed and based upon genre and geographic diversity provide music with cultural diversity. We thank all of our supporters, especially our associate members who understand the Independent vitality, who increased our access for both marketing & promotion and monetization as we move forward! We thank our publicists at Shore Fire for the fabulous press coverage at all mediums that has increased the A2IM press profile to new heights. We thank you all for your continued financial support of A2IM’s mission, we know it is not easy and we appreciate it.

The A2IM Board and Staff

Posted in News by A2IM

As A2IM previously reported, The Obama Administration’s Intellectual Property Enforcement Coordinator (“IPEC”), Victoria Espinel is starting the process of developing a new Joint Strategic Plan on Intellectual Property Enforcement and on behalf of independent music labels and our membership. A2IM has filed comments outlining our community’s specific needs.

All Music Matters (AMM) has taken a special interest in A2IM’s filing stating, “Their letter to Ms. Espinel does a wonderful job detailing many of the issues that affect independent content owners and creators as it relates to weak copyright protection. Informative and inspirational, it will surely speak to and benefit any independent artist, label and publisher who reads it.” Read the full AMM text HERE.

A2IM’s Letter to Victoria Espinel, The Obama Administration’s Intellectual Property Enforcement Coordinator (“IPEC”), can be read HERE.

Victoria Espinel’s speech at A2IM’s Indie Week 2012 can be seen HERE.

About AMM

Posted in Members Only, News by A2IM

We have so many videos to share from Indie Week 2012 that they would just not fit on one post. Below is a continuation of the video series including Rich Bengloff’s A2IM State of the Union Address and Victoria Espinel’s Keynote Address.

The videos are password protected for A2IM members only. Should you need assistance resetting your password or logging in, please contact Sheryl (sheryl@a2im.org)

Posted in Members Only, News by A2IM

We have so many videos to share from Indie Week 2012 that they would just not fit on one post. Below is a continuation of the panels presented on Day 2 including the Digital Case Studies Panel and excerpts 1 thru 6 of the Annual Meeting.

The videos are password protected for A2IM members only. Should you need assistance resetting your password or logging in, please contact Sheryl (sheryl@a2im.org)

Posted in News by A2IM

A2IM’s Indie Week 2012, which was held in NYC from June 19-21, was a huge success. Over 600 members were in attendance across the three days of events making this the largest gathering in A2IM history. In attendance were delegations from AIM in the UK and China as well as delegates from over 10 other countries around the world and our A2IM members from all across the United States. All the panels are available to watch now and other highlights, which include Rich Bengloff’s State of the Union address and the Obama Administration’s “IP Czar” Victoria Espinel’s Keynote address at the A2IM annual member meeting will be on the website later this week and highlighted in next week’s RoundUp Newsletter

Indie Week 2012 was capped off by the Inaugural A2IM Libera Awards. The Libbies, hosted by John Ross Bowie (Big Bang Theory), were held at Le Poisson Rouge on June 21, 2012. In attendance was a veritable who’s who of the Independent Music Community. A2IM extends a warm THANK YOU to the A2IM Awards Committee for a fantastic event.

Below is a compilation of the press which Indie Week 2012 has received as well as pictures and videos of the panel presentations and annual meeting.

A2IM extends a BIG thanks to our member volunteers (Jeff Kent/Sound Performance, Anna Siegel/7digital, Stacy Karp/A to Z Media, Kyle Olesen/OEM, Jim Logrando/Redeye Distribution, Andrew Keyes/Robot of the Century, Judith Govey, Lara Baker, James Farrelly/AIM, Christina Zafiris, Louis Joachim and Tara Frank) who gave of their time to make Indie Week 2012 run smoothly.

The A2IM staff offer a heartfelt “THANKS!” to our Indie Week 2012 sponsors:

Billboard.Biz (recap of Day One)

Billboard.Biz (recap of Day Two)

Obama Administration’s “IP CZAR”, Victoria Espinel: Indie Week 2012’s Keynote Speaker

Victoria Espinel’s Keynote Address Transcribed

Below are the videos of the panel discussion and annual meeting. Please note, the videos are password protected for A2IM members only. Please contact Sheryl Cohen if you have any difficulties logging in. (sheryl@a2im.org)

Posted in News by A2IM

Victoria Espinel, the U.S. Intellectual Property Enforcement Coordinator for the Executive Office of the President was A2IM’s Indie Week 2012 Keynote Speaker. Ms. Espinel has shared with us a summary overview of her first two years in office.

Today is the two-year anniversary of the Administration’s Joint Strategic Plan on Intellectual Property Enforcement. Attached (HERE) is a short summary of some of the great progress in IP enforcement that has been made over the past two years, including an increase in law enforcement operations, private sector voluntary best practices, Congressional action, government efficiency, and enforcement of U.S. rights abroad.