Non-profit global rights agency Merlin has voted four new U.S members to its board in a recent member election from several major independent record labels.
The new appointments are Dave Hansen, General Manager, Epitaph (Weezer, New Found Glory); William Crowley, VP Digital & Mobile, E1 Entertainment (Moby, Joan Osborne); Kris Gillespie, General Manager, Domino USA (Arctic Monkeys, Franz Ferdinand); Glenn Dicker, Co-owner, Yep Roc Records and Redeye Distribution.
The four new board members join current members Tom Silverman, founder of Tommy Boy Records and Bob Frank, President of syndication network Qello.
Merlin also announced the addition of several new U.S labels to the organization. New members Merge Records (Arcade Fire, Spoon, She & Him), Sup Pop (Fleet Foxes), Naxos of America, Secretly Canadian Distribution, Jagjaguwar (Bon Iver), Thrill Jockey, Latin Cool Records, Righteous Babe and Music Media Mexico join the likes of Beggars/Matador, Saddlecreek, Victory and distributors Redeye/Yeproc, Virtual Label and United for Opportunity as Merlin members.
The new additions bring the number of Merlin’s global membership to over 14,000 independent labels.
Merlin, which fashions itself as the fifth major label, has deals with digital services Spotify, Rdio, MySpace Music and Simfy. The company launched a bid to music services Amazon and Google last month to receive compensation comparable to major labels terms. Only Merlin member Merge wound up making a deal with YouTube.
“It is an honor to be joining Merlin,” Gillespie said. “The organization has done a commendable job fighting for the independent sector and looking out for our rights while tackling the issues that are challenging every strata of the music business and I look forward to contributing to those efforts.”
“These new appointments from our US membership add an inestimable amount of knowledge, experience and value to the Merlin board,” Merlin CEO, Charles Caldas said.
The first meeting of the new board took place Monday, June 20 in New York.