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A2IM Monthly Digest: August 2024

Welcome to A2IM’s Monthly Digest! This month, we announced the dates for A2IM Indie Week & Libera Awards 2025, the launch of Indie Week Australia Edition, our 20th anniversary and more!

Updates 🪩

  • A2IM Indie Week Australia Edition 🇦🇺
    • Big News! A2IM is planning to hold our first ever international Indie Week in Australia set for summer 2025, thanks to our friends at AIR, and the Government of South Australia. Read more HERE. 
  • A2IM 20th Anniversary ❤️
    • We’re turning 20 next year! We’d love to involve as many members as possible in telling A2IM’s story in celebration of 20 years. Please reach out to Nicolle on our team ([email protected]) to express interest and to get involved. 
  • Save the Date: A2IM Indie Week and Libera Awards 🗓️
    • Libera Awards and Indie Week 2025 will be held from June 9-12, 2025. Stay tuned for more details! đź””
    • Get involved – Be a Sponsor for the Libera Awards or Indie Week happening during A2IM’s 20th year celebration! Email Alex Machurov at [email protected]
  • A2IM Trade Mission to Reeperbahn Festival, in Partnership With Rise
    • Next month, A2IM is going to Germany! Join us at the Berlin Experience and Reeperbahn Festival in Hamburg this Sept. 17-21, 2024 for the A2IM-coordinated trade mission in partnership with Rise. Visit the U.S. embassy in Berlin where you can learn about overcoming trade barriers, participate in meetings with European businesses, and attend high-level networking events between international partners. 
    • While at Reeperbahn Festival, A2IM and Rise will be hosting an exclusive B2BEERGARDEN networking mixer. Together we’ll host members and festival invitees in a beautiful open air venue in the heart of St. Pauli and enjoy a charming atmosphere and vibrant experience. Come join us at the Reeperbahn Festival! Contact [email protected] for more information.
  • Mentorship Program 🤝 We Need YOU! 
    • The A2IM Fall Mentorship program will be returning starting on October 15 to March 31. Applications for the 11th cycle opened on Thursday, August 15 and will remain open until Friday, September 13. We encourage you and your fellow colleagues to sign up to connect, learn and inspire in a program tailor-made for the indie sector! Apply now here!
  • New Member Roundup! Please help us give a warm welcome to the members who joined this month…

Meet the Team this Fall! 🍂

  • September
    • Find President and CEO Dr. Richard James Burgess in Hamburg for Reeperbahn (Sept. 18-21) and in Belgrade for WINCON (Sept. 23-24)
    • Emmaline McCourt, Senior Manager, Membership will be in Nashville for AMERICANAFEST (Sept. 17-21)
  • October
    • Membership Director Chirag Patel will be in Dublin for Ireland Music Week Oct. 1-4 and in Santa Monica, CA for Music Tectonics (Oct. 22-24)
    • Team A2IM will be in our homebase of NYC for Mondo.NYC happening Oct.15-18
    • Emmaline will also be in North Carolina for the annual Redeye Label Hang (Oct. 22-24)

A2IM Indiescussion Webinar Series 🎥 

  • Upcoming on Thursday, Sept. 19 at 1pm ET: “How to discover and grow your audience with Chartmetric” presented by Domenico Randazzo, Client Relations Manager at Chartmetric. – RSVP here
  • We’re gearing up for the next season of our popular Indiescussion webinar series, done in partnership with our members. We’ve partnered with Symphonic, OpenPlay, ShineX, Music.AI, ClicknClear, Ircam, Viberate, Vevo, MatchTune and SET.Live to bring our community informative and thought-provoking webinars on everything from Data Analytics for Indies to Navigating Music Copyrights with AI. Log into the A2IM Member Info Hub HERE to access these recordings. Want to host an Indiescussion webinar with us? Fill out this form. 

Advocacy in Action ✊

  • PAC Developments
    • Our Political Action Committee continues to strengthen ties with key lawmakers to champion the interests of the independent music sector. For contributions or more information, please reach out to [email protected] or [email protected].
  • NO FAKES Act
    • The NO FAKES Act was successfully introduced to the Senate. This bill would create a federal intellectual property right to your own voice & visual likeness & establish a system to fight back against non consensual AI deepfakes & voice clones. – Learn more here
      • Richard’s statement: “We thank Senators Coons, Blackburn, Klobuchar, and Tills for their AI policy leadership in combating non consensual deepfakes and unauthorized digital replicas. This legislation prioritizes the rights and livelihoods of creators while ensuring crucial protections for free expression – it’s a major win for the public.” 
  • Concord Music Group et al. v. Anthropic PBC
    • The court in Tennessee decided to transfer the case to California and did not resolve any of the issues related to the plaintiffs’ motion for a preliminary injunction, including the issues addressed in the amicus brief. A2IM supports this renewed motion.  – Learn more 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 here.
For information about how to join our community, see here.