American Association of Independent Music

The American Association of Independent Music (A2IM) is a trade association that represents independent record labels in the United States. The organization represents the independents’ interests in the marketplace, in the media, on Capitol Hill, and as part of the global music community. A2IM seeks fairness, equity, and transparency for independent music via lobbying, commerce, and member services. The independent music sector comprises over 34.4% of the music industry's market share in the United States in 2015.

A2IM is headquartered in New York City. There are also chapters of A2IM located in Nashville, Chicago, Northern California, Southern California, and the Pacific Northwest.

History

A2IM launched on July 4, 2005 to represent the needs of the independent music label community. The organization has some 370 independent music label members and over 150 associate members (companies who don’t own masters but rely upon, provide services for, or otherwise support independent music labels).

Association of Independent Music

The Association of Independent Music (commonly known as AIM) is a non-profit trade body established in 1998 by UK independent record labels to represent the independent record sector, which constitutes approximately 25% of the UK market.

AIM currently has over 800 record label and distributor members.

Most recently AIM have featured in the press over their contract negotiations with Apple for rights to distribute their labels' content on the iTunes service. AIM label tracks were not available on iTunes UK at launch, but contract terms have since been agreed with many of the independents, although negotiations are understood to still be on-going with others.

In September 2008, AIM became a founding member of UK Music which represents all aspects of the UK music industry.

Significant labels under AIM

Significant artists under AIM labels

Independent music

Independent music (often shortened to indie music or indie) is music produced independently from major commercial record labels or their subsidiaries, a process that may include an autonomous, do-it-yourself approach to recording and publishing. The term indie is sometimes also used to describe a genre (such as indie rock and indie pop); as a genre term, "indie" may include music that is not independently produced, and most independent music artists do not fall into a single, defined musical style or genre and usually create music that can be categorized into other genres.

Independent record labels

Independent labels have a long history of promoting developments in popular music, stretching back to the post-war period in the United States, with labels such as Sun Records, King Records, Stax, etc.

In the United Kingdom during the 1950s and 1960s, the major record companies had so much power that independent labels struggled to become established. Several British producers and artists launched independent labels as outlets for their work and artists they liked, but the majority failed as commercial ventures or were swallowed up by the majors.