Backbeat: Indies Mix, Do Business at A2IM Event in NYC

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A2IM President Rich Bengloff with Robot of the Century Publishing CEO Doug Keogh.

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Beyond Oblivion's Tamara Zachary and Ryan Lafferty (far right) prepare for their A2IM pre-CMJ event presentation.

A2IM hosted about 200 members at its annual CMJ kick-off event at Slate in New York City. The indie-heavy music festival was a typically big event for A2IM's member labels. "We had over 100 members on panels during CMJ," says president Rich Bengloff. "Tons of our members had showcases."

Among those in attendance were Charles Caldas (CEO, Merlin), Adam Klein (CEO, eMusic), Tom Silverman (founder and CEO, Tommy Boy Records), Allen Kovac (founder, Eleven Seven Music and CEO at 10th Street Entertainment), Portia Sabin (president, Kill Rock Stars), Tor Hansen (co-owner, Redeye Distribution and Yep Roc Records), Darius Van Arman (co-owner, Jagjaguwar Records) and Simon Wheeler (Director of Strategy, Beggars Group).

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This year's party was a networking event that allowed A2IM members to get to know one another. Putting them in the same room turned out to be quite fruitful. Bengloff says some important items of business were able to be resolved during CMJ week because of introductions made at the kick-off event.

Representatives from the event's sponsors, Tamara Spinner Zachary from Beyond Oblivion and Liz Leahy from Section 101, each gave a brief presentation. Beyond Oblivion was able to give on-site demonstration at the event and show people the company's Boinc subscription service. Boinc, a departure from normal subscription services, is not yet live and many people in the room were not familiar with it, says Spinner Zachary. "For us, it was an excellent opportunity to get in front of the indie labels."

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Daniel Glass of Glassnote Records with A2IM V.P. Jim Mahoney and Shane German of SoundExchange.

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A2IM Board member and tinyOGRE COO Jim Cooperman congratulates Alan Galbraith and Ed Vetri of Windup Records on Evanescence's number one Billboard album chart debut during CMJ week.