As The World Tunes
AFIM Convention 1998
by Steve Bussey
GeoSynchronous Records
The Association For Independent Music (AFIM) recently held their annual convention in Denver, Colorado, and I was fortunate to attend. The AFIM (founded in 1972 and formerly known as NAIRD) objectives are to improve the communication between labels, distributors, and retailers, and to promote the independent music industry. The convention was 5 full days. There were crash courses in the music business, seminars, speakers, showcases, and trade show exhibits. There were several social activities as well.
The first day consisted of optional crash courses for newcomers to the music business and AFIM. These covered such topics as legalities, production, manufacturing, sales, marketing, distribution, publicity, and radio.
The following days offered seminars and speakers covering specific topics including direct mail marketing of your music, Internet marketing and promotion, retail promotion, beginning distribution, advanced distribution, new technologies and special interest groups. The special interest groups covered specific areas such as artist owned labels, blues, bluegrass/folk, new age, classical, Latin, children's, and alternative rock.
Besides all the business activities, the AFIM knows how to throw a party! They had a great welcome reception, open bar, hors d'oeuvres, and live entertainment (from one of the sponsoring record labels, of course). There also was a dinner in Denver's Museum of Natural History. A fancy buffet, open bar, and a private viewing of the museum, and of course more live entertainment from the sponsoring record label.
The trade show offered the opportunity to pick up a bunch of free CDs, magazines, and other goodies, and also get pricing info on CD replication and other services. I saw and heard some really specialized CDs, like those used for meditation, healing, or Chakra stimulation (no kidding). I guess there is a market for everything.
Another good opportunity at conventions like this is networking. I meet a lot of people and we traded "war stories" and marketing techniques. One guy from Australia had sold an "advertisement" inside of one of his artist's CDs to a leading sport utility vehicle for fifty cents per CD. They have made about five thousand dollars from it so far! It was tastefully done, actually a photo of the artist in front of the vehicle, and the artist was happy to do it. An American company I met imports Australian music, and is working on a deal with a well known Australian-theme restaurant in the USA to sell a compilation CD in the restaurant.
I also learned that there were 30,000 albums released last year, and about 95% of those releases were on independent labels. However, 95% of the quantity of total sales were from the major labels. About 95% of the 30,000 sold less than 1,000 units.
There was one more great party, the annual awards dinner. This was a formal affair, with live entertainment from 4 acts, including Sister Sledge, now on an indie label. Awards were given for many different styles of music and things like cover design and packaging. A compilation CD (3 discs!) of the winners was given to the attendees.
All in all, it was worth the trip, and I plan to go again. Next years convention will be in Atlanta, GA, in May. Call AFIM at 606 633 0946 or http://www.afim.com .
About the author: Steve Bussey is a singer/songwriter/guitarist and is currently the owner and general manager of GeoSynchronous Records (http://www.pan.com/geosync, Listening Line 800 235 9193, ask for a free catalog), an indie label handling artists such as Les Dudek, Mike Pachelli, Bong Water Taffy, and Big Red & The Bus. Prior to this, Steve earned Bachelor's and Master's degrees in Electrical Engineering and Acoustics from Georgia Tech, designed sound equipment and guitar amps for Fender, and supervised design of communication systems for the Space Shuttle at Kennedy Space Center.
