“The Digital Path to Market” it’s a mapping and capacity building project promoted by AMAEI within MusicAIRE program, co-funded by the European Union under the 2020 Annual work programme for the implementation of the “Preparatory Action – Music Moves Europe: Boosting European music diversity and talent”. Overall, the project aims at being a fundamental information gathering and knowledge-spreading initiative within the European digital music ecosystem, providing cornerstone building blocks of key knowledge so as to take the European independent music sector forward in the years to come, with a better approach to metadata, ISRC usage, and other essential best practices without which a just and resilient recovery will remain elusive and out of reach to many creators.
The only way to achieve transparency in this maelstrom is to start out by mapping the European digital ecosystem: who are our EU digital distributors, who are they owned by, what deals do they go through to distribute to the platforms, and what ISRCs are actually being used properly. The second part of the solution is to build the capacity of the European Independent recorded sector via European webinars available to the entire sector via IMPALA’s network of Trade Associations.
These capacity-building actions will raise awareness within the sector on the importance and key criteria in choosing their digital path to market, collecting best practices and building strategies for the independent businesses and self release artists.
Finally, advocacy is also a part of the objectives as AMAEI subscribes to the IMPALA 10-point plan to Make Streaming Work. The project will feed additional concrete data onto this plan, so as to enhance and apply its points going forward in an even more useful, concrete manner across Europe.
There has never been a mapping of digital players and connections in Europe before. The project is innovative in that it features front-line experience and deep knowledge so as to guide such a mapping.
Connecting AMAEI’s Executive team with IMPALA and other TA’s, means that this new project will stand-out in its usefulness for the entire European Independent Music Sector, fostering growth and a just and resilient recovery in the digital sphere by substantiating why EU labels and self-released artists stand to gain by choosing a digital path to market that included independent distributors and aggregators from Europe, who can guarantee a transparent window into streaming royalties and payouts, for example via MERLIN deals, benefitting the entire sector.
