NARM and Digitalmusic.org Rebrand as the Music Business Association
NARM (National Association of Recording Merchandisers) and its digital sister digitalmusic.org will now collectively known as the Music Business
Association (MusicBiz.org), the music industry trade group announced today. The organization will continue to be headed by President Jim Donio and his team in Marlton, NJ.
In 2009, with the music industry in full post-Napster meltdown, NARM began the transition to this inevitable name change, hiring of Bill Wilson. Whatever his title, Wilson's mandate was always to keep the
trade group and it's members ahead of an increasingly sharp digital curve. In 2011, Wilson spearheaded the formation of sister organization digitalmusic.org as a home for this burgeoning sector.
"We always knew we were going to need to take a more dramatic move
to go beyond categories like ‘physical’ and ‘digital’ and redefine the organization
as a whole,” said Rachelle Friedman, Music Business Association Chairman of the
Board and CEO of J&R Music & Computer World.
Six Sectors
In addition to the name change, The Music Business Association has established six sectors that reflect its diverse membership: Digital, Information Technology, Physical, Knowledge (events, education); Artists, Management, Touring and Legal & Business Affairs.
“The
sector concept builds on the structure we created with the digitalmusic.org
Work Groups, with members getting actively involved in the issues that are
important to them and drive their bottom line,” said Wilson, Music Biz's VP of Digital Strategy and Business Development,
Six New Board Members
The
current members of the Board of Directors will remain in place, and six new
seats have been added. Four of those new directors come from the former NARM
Music Industry Advisory Council members. They are:
- Brad
Navin, The Orchard - Darren
Stupak, Sony Music Entertainment - Matt
Signore, Warner Music Group - Jim
Urie, Universal Music Group
They
join:
- Rachelle Friedman, J&R Music World – Chairman
- Brent Muhle, iTunes – Vice Chairman
- John Trickett, immergent – Treasurer
- Christina Calio, Microsoft
- Len Cosimano, Director-at-Large
- Mike Fratt, Homer’s
- Steve Harkins, Baker & Taylor
- Anthony Montenegro, Nokia
- Bruce
Ogilvie,
Super D/Alliance Entertainment - Dilyn Radakovitz, Dimple Records
- Ryan Redington, Amazon
- Steve Savoca, Spotify
Two
more directors representing music content companies are expected to be
appointed by the end of the year.
“More segments of the business than ever before now play an active role in the
commerce side of the business, so the name National Association of Recording
Merchandisers no longer reflected everyone who can participate in the
organization," said president Donio in a statement. "The Music Business Association makes it crystal clear – and for
the first time in the organization’s history, the ‘M’ stands for music.”
