The American Association of Independent Music (A2IM) recently hosted IndieWeek 2023 in Manhattan. Apart from being one of the largest gathering of independent artists in the world, the three-day networking conference brings together distributors, labels, DSPs, investors, and others.
The following comes from Open On Sunday, a company DMN is proud to be partnering with.
To launch our new platform, DMN TV, sponsored by Open On Sunday, Digital Music News hit the road to cover panel discussions and industry awards. Artist and songwriter performances also took place during the three-day event A2IM IndieWeek, all hosted at Intercontinental Hotel in Times Square.
A2IM IndieWeek 2023 kicked off with a rooftop party presented by ADA. During the panel discussion, Adrienne Muhammad with Open On Sunday guided record labels on how to manage their catalogs, saying, “Before we even purchase a catalog, we need to get to know who the audience is. So we know how to market those catalogs once we acquire them.”
Multiple panels during the three-day conference cultivated discussions about how evolving technology and processes affect the independent music community. Attendees shared their knowledge about AI, sync, and music marketing alongside other insightful topics.
Speaking at a panel, Leslie Rosales from Rostrum Records narrated how an artist from Milwaukee pulled out all the stops to market his music. “Our artist stood on top of his friend’s car, put out a big speaker, and played songs from his album. His fans went crazy. It was controlled chaos. For one, something was happening in Milwaukee. Two, it’s their hometown hero doing something special for them,” Rosales said.
Discussing sync opportunities and the exposure it brings to the table, Rich Goldman from Riptide Music Group explained how one of their artists seized the ‘spark’ of sync. Goldman explained how an artist is “now approaching 100 million streams because the song got to YouTube,” adding, “It’s kind of nuts. [The song] got ported over to a bunch of different channels, created this streaming activity, and the song keeps going.”
Eden Shiferaw, VP of NVG, LLC, touched on the latest congressional developments surrounding AI and perceived national security threats with mainstream AI use. Shiferaw revealed, “[Members of Congress] are very concerned particularly with American adversaries, in terms of what they’re doing with AI, and how they’re regulating it.”
Other offsite events included a rooftop party hosted by dot HipHop, multiple investor conferences, and two bigger events centered around songwriters and their achievements.
The induction ceremony of the 2023 class of the Songwriters Hall of Fame was held at the Marriott Marquis, and the National Music Publishers Association annual meeting took place at Alice Tully Hall.
During the NMPA Gala, Taylor Swift’s songwriter Liz Rose was surprised with a live rendition of her Grammy-nominated, Swift-co-penned single, “All Too Well.” Alana Springsteen performed the song. The following evening, Rose was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame along with Glen Ballard, Calvin Broadus (Snoop Dogg), Gloria Estefan, Jeff Lynne, and Teddy Riley.
NMPA President and CEO David Israelite wrapped up the final event, remarking on the ‘stronger’ state of the industry, adding, “Last year, the total revenue for the songwriting and publishing industry was just over $5.6 billion. That represents a 19.25% increase year over year.”
A2IM IndieWeek 2023 events took place on June 12 – June 15.
