A2IM To FCC: ¿Amen, Brother¿

The American Assn. of Independent Music (A2IM), a new trade association less than a year old, is happy with its meeting yesterday with FCC Commissioner Jonathan Adelstein and their discussion of a set of "best practices" or "rules of engagement" for music labels and broadcasters to adopt to avoid the taint of payola.

A2IM acting president Don Rose, a co-founder of Rykodisc, along with former Artemis president Daniel Glass, met with Commmissioner Adelstein at the latter's invitation yesterday afternoon. Rose told Billboard.biz after the meeting, "We walked out feeling like we were heard" by the commissioner and that "what's most important is that we can create a set of best practices or rules of engagement" for the music and broadcast industries.

The key to creating a workable relationship between the music and radio industries, said Rose, is "access"?meaning "any record company, big or small, has access to radio"?and "transparency"?meaning "any sort of financial aspect is disclosed by this set of best practices."

Adelstein said of the A2IM meeting, "A central point of stamping out payola is to improve the ability of local and independent artists to get heard on radio. Musicians, listeners and the radio industry itself all benefit when the best songs win, rather than the ones with the most money behind them."

When told of Adelstein's statement about the meeting, Rose gave Billboard.biz a two-word reaction: "Amen, brother!"

Rose also said he expects to have new information to share with the FCC in about a month, after conferring with A2IM's membership of more than 100 independent labels.