On Tuesday (June 11), the Association of Independent Music Publishers (AIMP) held its annual global music publishing summit at 3 West in New York. Boasting panels on a wide-ranging list of publishing hot topics, from fraud to film/TV synchronization, the one-day event featured executives from ABKCO, Rimas Publishing, Spirit Music Group, Warner Chappell, CD Baby, Pex and more.
One highlight of the day included the panel Opportunities Abroad: Maximizing Overseas Collection featuring Michael Simon (Harry Fox Agency), Alexander Wolf (SESAC International), David Alexander (MusicIndustry.Africa), Mark Chung (Freibank Music Publishing, IMPF) and Tomas Ericsson (AMRA).
During the panel, the experts, who hail from around the world, discussed the increasingly globalized music market, which regions hold the most value and how to maximize that value. “It can’t be like it was in the 90s,” said Simon. “Back then the answer was to sit back and wait for checks to arrive in your mailbox — that world seems to be disappearing.”
Some experts stressed the importance of leaning on sub-publishers with local knowledge to ensure proper collections. Ericsson, whose company AMRA collects digital royalties on a worldwide basis, explained that using AMRA can also be a solution to pain points in collection worldwide because “the majority of societies do not have the capital incentives to invest in better technology and therefore use whatever means they have to process this money to others.”
“My bet is on Asia,” said Wolf of the region with the most untapped potential for publishers. “They’re knowledgeable, and they’re making money… Africa as a continent is more troubled. Countries like Nigeria are especially great countries, great musicians but in the last thirty years, Nigeria had seven different collection societies. There is value there, but we need patience.”
The AIMP event coincided with what’s known as New York Music Month (NYMM) — a collection of events across the five boroughs to support the city’s local music scene. Though the festivities continue throughout the entire month, the bulk of NYMM events happen the week of June 10-15. In the publishing business, the annual gathering is fondly known as “Publishers’ Week” or “Songwriters’ Week” in reference to events like AIMP, the National Music Publishers’ Association’s annual meeting and the Songwriters Hall of Fame — all of which take place in the same five-day period. Others also call it “Indie Week,” a reference to the Association of American Independent Music’s five-day conference of the same name.
