A2IM Receives Award from the U.S. Department of Commerce for Efforts to Address Trade Barriers
WASHINGTON–Joseph Semsar, Deputy Under Secretary for International Trade, announced the Department of Commerce’s selection of the New York-based A2IM (American Association of Independent Music) as a recipient for an MDCP (Market Development Cooperator Program) award. The MDCP award will help the U.S. independent music industry enhance its global competitiveness by addressing trade barriers, identifying international investment and expansion opportunities, protecting U.S. creative and digital economy investments and intellectual property rights, as well as creating jobs and increasing revenues via enhanced exports and licensing of U.S. music.
This award is one of 10 new Market Development Cooperator Program (MDCP) awards designed to create or sustain U.S. jobs by increasing or maintaining the export of American goods and services. An MDCP award establishes a partnership between ITA and an American non-profit industry group. Each MDCP award includes financial and technical assistance from the Department of Commerce’s International Trade Administration (ITA) to reduce barriers to U.S. products in foreign markets.
A2IM will match the MDCP award with an investment of its own resources. Each MDCP award awardee pledges at least two-thirds of the project costs and to sustain its project after the initial MDCP award period ends. The funded project will allow A2IM to expand U.S. exports by: 1) enhancing and elevating A2IM’s continued efforts to support the protection and enforcement of U.S. Intellectual Property Rights on behalf of its membership; 2) using the annual Indie Week conference platform to invite international speakers and businesses to take part in roundtables and workshops to address global trade barriers; and 3) a continued participation at foreign trade conferences to develop and enhance strategic alliances with high-level, vetted, foreign buyers.
“Through these partnerships with non-profit industry trade groups, the MDCP awardees are able to address trade barriers, enhance industry competitiveness, and generate exports that create and sustain American jobs,” said Semsar.
In 2016, during the music organization’s first MDCP export project, A2IM was awarded The President’s “E” Award for Export, the highest recognition any U.S. entity can receive for making a significant contribution to the expansion of U.S. exports. The MDCP award demonstrates A2IM’s continued commitment to promoting the export and licensing of American goods and services — specifically, independent music.
“A2IM is honored to be among the nonprofits selected for the MDCP award,” said A2IM CEO Richard James Burgess. “The work to support independent music never ceases, and this award will assist us in overcoming any hurdles that currently exist to identifying and acting on opportunities to bring U.S. independent music to all corners of the globe.”
MDCP awards ultimately benefit individual U.S. businesses and the U.S. workers they employ. MDCP projects generate $359 in American exports for every $1 of MDCP awards made, creating or sustaining over 17,000 American jobs in an average year.
Find more information about the Market Development Cooperator Program here.
About A2IM:
A2IM is a 501(c)(6) not-for-profit trade organization headquartered in New York City that exists to support and strengthen the independent recorded music sector. Membership currently includes a broad coalition of more than 700 Independently-owned American music labels. A2IM represents these independently owned small and medium-sized enterprises’ (SMEs) interests in the marketplace, in the media, on Capitol Hill, and as part of the global music community. In doing so, it supports a key segment of America’s creative class that represents America’s diverse musical cultural heritage. Billboard Magazine identified the Independent music label sector as 37.32 percent of the music industry’s U.S. recorded music sales market in 2016 based on copyright ownership, making Independent labels collectively the largest music industry sector.
Learn more about A2IM. To join, contact us at [email protected].