Back to London Calling, and the Association Of Independent Music AGM, and the trade body's boss said that that much previously reported spat in the indie community over the IMPALA deal with Warner Music over a then possible Warner EMI merger was in part responsible for the industry organisation making at £41,518 loss in 2007, compared to a £2000 loss in 2006.
As previously reported, some key indies, most prominently Ministry Of Sound, last year objected to a deal between pan-European indie label trade body IMPALA and Warner Music chief Edgar Bronfman Jr.
At the time Warner was hoping to merge with EMI, something which would need European Commission approval. With the EC having been forced to reconsider the approval it gave to the 2004 Sony BMG merger after IMPALA successfully appealed that approval in the European courts, Warner were keen to reassure EMI shareholders any merger would not fall foul of competition regulations. To do that Bronfman did a deal with IMPALA as a result of which the trade body said it would not oppose an EMI Warner merger. The details of that deal were never revealed, though it was thought it involved commitments by the major to help support the fledgling globally focused indie digital rights body Merlin.
Ministry and some others strongly objected to the deal, saying certain IMPALA and AIM members were jeopardising the independent sector by turning a blind eye to further major label consolidation in return for help getting their own digital rights venture off the ground. Ministry and Gut promptly resigned AIM, which, as an affiliate of IMPALA, had approved the deal.
In the end it was all irrelevant because Guy Hands' Terra Firma bought EMI and talk of an EMI Warner merger went off the agenda. But those resignations did hit AIM's revenues. According to Music Week, Wenham told her AGM yesterday: "As you know we had a fairly big fallout over the Warner debacle so we lost about £30,000 there, but we recovered as best we could. We've always come in slightly above or slightly below each year". On the Warner deal row, she added: "I think we came out of it with dignity and with some lessons learned. And we are still here". Ministry et al might disagree, though not with that last point you'd assume.
Back on the safer territory that is expressing concern about the majors rather than doing deals with them, Wenham raised the issue of Universal Music, the biggest record company in the world which, as Wenham pointed out, is doing very well market share wise at the moment. That is good news for Universal Music parent company Vivendi, but, the AIM boss reckons, possibly something of concern for the wider record industry. Calling Universal's current sales stats "unsettling", she added, according to Music Week: "If you own over half the music release market you will have a significant catalogue in years to come and that's where the pain will come".
Other announcements at the AIM AGM included the news that Wenham plans to step down as President of the globally focused Worldwide Independent Network this Autumn, that next year's AGM may take place during a weekend of events to celebrate the trade body's tenth birthday, and that the following people have been elected to the body's board:
Kerry Harvey-Piper, Co-Founder & Director, Red Grape Records
Julie Weir, A&R Director, Visible Noise
Simon Raymonde, Director, Bella Union
Ben Watt, Buzzin' Fly