360° Digital Artist

Being an independent record label doesn’t mean that the company has to “go it alone” in the music industry. There are over 86,000 professional and trade associations, some of which are great allies to independents. One organization in particular is the American Association of Independent Music, also known as A2IM.

A2IM is a member of the Worldwide Independent Music Industry Network (WIN), which connects labels and associations from around the world. As the A2IM website states: “A2IM is an organization of independent music labels that promotes business opportunity, provides advocacy and representation, as well as networking opportunities for the independent label community.”

Representing independent record labels is a very important cause that A2IM is pursuing seeing that independent labels account for 30% of the music industry sales, 38% of the digital sales, and 80% of all releases.  A2IM advocates on behalf of their members for fair trade, making sure that independents are equal in the market with the major labels. They seek to open doors for technology, mainstream media, and the legislative arena of the government.

Membership in A2IM is made up of both labels and associates. The definition of a Label Member is a company “that controls music masters.” Associate Members are “companies that work with, rely upon, or otherwise support independent labels.” Membership dues for labels are based on the most recent SoundScan data for that company, the minimum being $1,000 for a one-year membership.

Along with advocacy, A2IM provides its Label Members with commerce opportunities and networking opportunities. Coming together as a group also affords opportunities for discount offers to members for industry conferences and business services such as digital distribution.

A2IM recently fought for proper compensation of independent labels and artists. In particular, they helped identify $1.5 million in missing royalty payments that belonged to about 100 independent labels.

A2IM's fame in recent years was from joining forces with Merlin to take on the MySpace Music giant. They felt that MySpace was giving preferential treatment to major labels and overlooking independents when it came to equity partnerships. MySpace denied the claims of both organizations, but I lean toward something having been amiss if two advocacy groups where up in arms about it.

There is enough value in a membership in A2IM that setting a budgeting goal for joining the association is good aspiration for an independent record label. There are a number of independent labels that start and fail each year because they simply do not know the industry. Only by surrounding oneself with others experienced in the industry can one have a chance at success. I would suggest not only joining the association, but become actively involved in one of their committees as well.

Information Source: http://a2im.org/