WIN Updates - 2024 Q4

Welcome to our new LinkedIn newsletter with updates from the global independent network. This is a summary of our quarterly updates sent through our mailing list. If you wish to receive the full version, subscribe now for free.

Highlights:

• Major label consolidation and collective licensing deals with digital platforms were in the spotlight this quarter
• November marked WIN’s first visit to MENA
• We published EDI and Sustainability resources
• We hosted a couple of WINHUB events in Sofia (Bulgaria) and online
• beatBread joined the WIN Supporters program after sponsoring the 2024 edition of WINCON in Belgrade (Serbia).?

Read on to learn more about our activities over the past three months!

Global Industry Affairs

WIN members around the world raised concerns over TikTok’s decision to reject negotiations with Merlin to renew their deal. We released a statement compiling reactions from several territories.

Following the news that UMG’s Virgin Music is set to acquire Downtown, trade associations around the world raised the alarm about the potential negative consequences this deal would have on the music ecosystem. We published a statement compiling reactions from a number of territories.

WIN and IMICHILE co-signed a letter regarding the draft AI bill in Chile which introduces a broad exception for text and data mining.

WIN's Performance Rights Group met in Sofia, Bulgaria in October and online in December.

Australia and New Zealand are now covered by RDx, making a total of 20 recipient territories.

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Network Development

Our CEO Noemí Planas attended?the Visa for Music Festival and Conference in Rabat, Morocco and made some key contacts to advancing the independents’ agenda in the Maghreb and the Middle East.

In December, Sridhar Swaminathan (SIMCA, India),?Engin Akinci (BMYD, Turkey), and other WIN network members visited Saudi Arabia to participate in?the?Riyhad Music Week.

Projects

Following the first European WINHUB gathering in Sofia, Bulgaria in early October, later that month we organized the WINHUB Japan x New Zealand online event in collaboration with IMCJ and IMNZ.

beatBread joined the?WIN Supporters?program in October, to further underline its commitment to the global independent music Community.

Resources

We published EDI and Sustainability resources with great flagship initiatives that trade associations around the world promote and support.

Eva Karman Reinhold, Chairman of SOM and Chair of IMPALA’s Equity Diversity & Inclusion task force chair reflected on how WIN serves as a global platform for a fairer and more sustainable music industry in our ongoing campaign to promote the Global Independent Values.

Benefits

Members of WIN associations can access special rates to attend international conferences. Current benefits include discounts for FIM GDL (Guadalajara, Mexico), SXSW (Austin, USA), Primavera Pro (Barcelona, Spain), Rio2C (Rio de Janeiro, Brazil) and SoAlive Music Conference (Sofia, Bulgaria). Contact your local trade association to access these benefits.

WIN, A2IM, Secretly Group & More Call on Regulators to Block Virgin Music’s Downtown?Acquisition?Billboard?

Exclusive: WIN says TikTok's decision to circumvent Merlin "puts independent labels in an impossible place" and "poses risk to cultural diversity"?CMU

Sector independiente global se opone a la adquisición de Downtown por parte de Universal?Industria Musical?

WIN and A2IM add voices to criticism of UMG’s Downtown deal?Music Ally

Worldwide Independent Network reports 'widespread concern' over TikTok's switch to direct licensing?Music Week

WIN-Indies schlagen Alarm in Sachen Universal Music und Downtown?MusikWoche

Opposition grows worldwide about TikTok's decision to stop negotiations with Merlin?Record of the Day

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