Have you heard of A2IM? If not, read on to find out more about the organization and how they may have helped you – without you even knowing:

The American Association of Independent Music (A2IM, www.a2im.org) is a non-profit trade organization comprised of independent music labels that have joined forces to form a central voice advocating for the health of the Independent music sector. A2IM fights for and protects the rights of the indie music label community.

Through advocacy, commerce opportunities, and member services, including education, A2IM’s mission is to obtain tangible economic gains for its members.

And who are A2IM’s members?

• Label Members (those who control music masters). Currently there are about 238 label members of varying sizes and genres – some owned by artists like Burning Spear, the Hanson brothers, Joan Jett, Carol King, Moe, the Skaggs Family, and Gillian Welch. And other labels like Mountain Apple in Hawaii, Barsuk in Seattle, Kill Rock Stars in Portland, Saddle Creek In Omaha, RhymeSayers in Minneapolis, Righteous Babe in Buffalo, and more.

• Associate Members — companies that work with, rely upon, or otherwise support independent labels – currently there are about 114 associate members.

What has A2IM done?:

• helped defeat the proposed NY state digital sales tax that would have added a 5% cost on top of all digital sales transacted in New York thereby impacting any member selling music to fans in NY
• headed the grassroots campaign to get congress to enact a performance right royalty in the U.S. payable by AM/FM radio when they play your music (which would also require foreign radio stations to begin to pay U.S. artists and labels too),
• engaged with major telecoms, YouTube, Amazon and other leading digital partners about more direct and effective relationships with independent labels,
• represented independent labels in discussions with the NMPA and the RIAA about the problems with the current mechanical royalty rate, in particular the 1.5% late fee penalty and the 24 cent mastertone rate
• direct outreach to members who were missing royalties due to incorrect data (identifying nearly $1.5 million for approximately 100 labels) or who were not registered to collect royalties from SoundExchange,

And more.

Tell us what you think: Have you heard of A2IM? If you’re an indie label owner, would you apply for membership?

The SongCast Crew