A Little Help From Some Well Connected Friends

The American Association of Independent Music (A2IM) is a music industry trade organization dedicated to the needs of the independent music community.  Working with the organization is like having a good friend in high places. They represent the interests of independent artists and labels in the marketplace, in the media, and in Washington.   The group is headquartered in New York City, but has chapters in Los Angeles and Nashville.

The organization recognizes that independents make up nearly 35% of the industry’s domestic market share, but does not receive an equitable share of industry receipts.  A2iM’s goal is to help independent labels compete on a level playing field with the majors. 

One of the ways they do this is by introducing new areas of commerce and monetization.  According to A2IM president, Rich Bengloff, label can no longer make money by traditional means – touring, albums and merchandise -  he recommends diversifying the revenue streams.

“Access and getting noticed is harder because everyone has access,” he says and suggests that artists – and labels- think outside of the box.  He noted that a recent study determined 42 different revenue streams available to musicians, including teaching, speaking engagements, fan funding, acting, session work, and synch licensing. Helping artists and labels avail themselves to these revenue streams is a big part of the group’s mission.

They recently hosted a “Licensing Day” event here in Nashville, bringing in music supervisors Frankie Pine and Russell Ziecker to discuss the ins and outs of licensing music for the show "Nashville." Allison Jones of Big Machine, the label that distributes the show's soundtrack albums was included in the panel discussion.  In addition to those panel discussions, the musical stars of the show and some of the songwriters behind their TV driven hits took the stage at the 3rd & Lindsley night club, to perform and talk about how their songs made it to the screen.

Randall Foster of the Nashville chapter has organized several similar events encouraging collaboration between Nashville’s music creators and the national film community.  During Film-Com he organized an A2IM Synchs & Drinks cocktail mixer at the Hard Rock featuring Lions For Real.  This event helped establish relationships between film and television producers and Nashville musical artists.

Organizations like A2IM and Film-Com are useful tools available to independent entertainment creators.  TAKE ADVANTAGE!