Association of Independent Record Companies South Africa - Merlin Announces New Board, incl AIRCO Board member.

Merlin Announces New Board, incl AIRCO Board member.

Following recent elections amongst its membership, Merlin – the global licensing agency representing the world's most commercially important basket of independent music rights unveiled its new board on September 4th, 2009.

Having completed their two-year term and overseen the transition of Merlin from an ambitious idea into the vital global force for independents that it is today, the agency's inaugural board will now step down. They are replaced with a board that includes some members of the inaugural board, plus new faces from across the global music business, including AIRCO Board Member Hilton "Roach" Roth, who replaces AIRCO Member Clive Hardwick as the representative from Africa.

Since launching for operation in late April 2008, Merlin has worked to protect the value of its members' repertoire against infringements. It has been outspoken in its criticism of ventures that it feels devalue independent rights, such as the major-label led MySpace Music, and has struck a host of international digital deals for its members with companies including Spotify, Catch Media, MUZU.TV and i-Mesh, with a number of other deals in the pipeline and soon to be announced.

To ensure the agency fully represents the varied geographical needs of the independent sector, the new board maintains the broadest possible territorial representation, split across Merlin's three operational territories, being North America, Europe and the rest of the world

The new board members, as voted for by Merlin members in the recent election are:

North America:

USA:
Bob Frank, Merlin Chairman
Josh Wittman, Red Eye/Yep Roc Records
Steve Savoca, Domino Records USA
Thomas Silverman, Tommy Boy Records

Canada:
Geoff Kulawick, IDLA

Europe:
Hein Van Der Ree, Epitaph Records Europe, Netherlands
Horst Weidenmueller, !K7, Germany
Martin Mills, Beggars Group, UK
Michel Lambot, [PIAS] Entertainment Group, Belgium
Thomas Lorain, Naïve, France

Rest Of The World:
Colin Daniels, Inertia, Australia
Marcus Seal, Shock Entertainment Group, Australia
Hilton Roth, African Dope, South Africa
Plus the current WIN President, Alison Wenham

In addition, 5 non-voting observer members have been appointed from the unsuccessful candidates in the election as follows:

North America:
Peter Wright, Virtual Label, USA
Susan Ferris, Long Live Crime, USA

Europe:
Florian Von Hoyer, Galileo MC Spain
Michael Pohl, Kontor New Media, Germany

Rest Of the World.
Takashi Kamide, Musicmind, Japan

Said Charles Caldas, Merlin CEO "Merlin's inaugural board members have shown an extraordinary amount of energy, passion and dedication in working to establish Merlin as a virtual fifth major, and it has been a privilege to work with them over the past two years.

This new board includes some of these founding members of Merlin and incorporates some remarkable new additions, giving Merlin the benefit of some of the best talent in the global music business with a huge range of skills and interests. Merlin's members are truly fortunate to have such a strong group of people representing their interests as we navigate this ever-changing landscape"

The board is appointed for a two-year term, at which point all board members will again step down to be replaced by a new board, as elected by the members.

Alongside the high-profile companies represented by the board members, Merlin's members also include the world's leading independents such as Ministry of Sound, Warp, Curb, Dramatico, Saddle Creek, KOCH/E1, Kontor, and Finetunes.

Together, Merlin's members represent over 9% of the US digital market. In a recent posting on their blog, Spotify confirmed the importance and value of the Merlin offering by revealing that Merlin's members' repertoire represented over 10% of the overall usage on the service.

Artists signed to Merlin member labels include Adele, Animal Collective, Arctic Monkeys, Bjork, DJ Khaled, Katie Melua, Franz Ferdinand, Maxïmo Park, Tom Waits, Vampire Weekend and The White Stripes.

For more information, please contact This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it or This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it

About Merlin
Merlin, the virtual fifth major, represents the world's most commercially important set of independent music rights. Merlin commenced operations in May 2008. Since then it has struck deals with a number of digital services including Spotify, Catch Media and i-Mesh.

Merlin offers rights users the opportunity to license collectively the individually unlicensable by creating a single point of contact for those wishing to license from the vast global output of the independent sector.

It ensures members have effective access to new and emerging revenue streams and that their rights are properly protected. Merlin represents by far the largest and most compelling basket of global independent rights, and so offers the most efficient means of licensing this repertoire.

A global organisation, its members' market share in the US alone is over 9%, equivalent to that of the smaller major labels, whilst in Europe member labels released 72% of the top 60 independent albums released in the past three years and commanded a 75% UK market share of the top 75 independent albums in 2007. Most recently, streaming service Spotify publicly announced that Merlin repertoire represented 10% of the usage on its service.

[ Back ]