IMPALA has announced the election of Francesca Trainini of Italian independent music body PMI as its new chair.
Trainini said: “I am delighted to be the new chair and would like to thank all IMPALA members for their trust. We will focus on reinforcing the independents in their role as pioneers and market leaders”.
The news comes after the IMPALA AGM, which took place over the weekend at Hamburg’s Reeperbahn festival. The board’s new 32-strong line-up includes six new members.
Eleven Seven Label Group and SCL/Lusitanian, from Portugal, arrive on the board alongside HAIL (Hungary), INDIERO (Romania), RUNDA (covering all 7 ex-Yugoslavia territories as well as Albania) and VTMÖ (Austria).
Elsewhere, Geert De Blaere, of Belgian association BIMA, was re-elected as treasurer, with Kees van Weijen of STOMP continuing as president. Helen Smith, who said the sale of Universal shares will be a key issue, remains executive chair.
We will focus on reinforcing the independents in their role as pioneers and market leaders
Francesca Trainini
Martin Mills of Beggars Group, Jérôme Roger of French association UPFI, Paul Pacifico from AIM and Dario Drastata of the Balkans’ association RUNDA were also voted onto IMPALA’s management board. They join Michel Lambot of PIAS Music Group, Mark Kitcatt of Everlasting Records and Jörg Heidemann from German association VUT, along with the chair, treasurer, president and executive chair.
Geert De Blaere, treasurer, said: “Access to finance and innovative financial tools are of utmost importance for independent record labels and my objective is to ensure that independents can finance their own future”.
President Kees van Weijen added: “My work will focus on central and eastern Europe, including the Baltics, Russia and other territories in the region. It will be a busy term for us”.
Helen Smith, executive chair, said: “The sale of shares in Universal Music will be a key issue for the incoming board, as well as maximising the digital market and getting the best deal for independents and our artists. This underpins all of our work”.
IMPALA also resolved to focus its work around issues including copyright directive implementation, assessing the optimal distribution model for streaming services, new investment and ensuring fair competition.
The full list of IMPALA members elected to the Board is as follows:
!K7 (represented by Horst Weidenmüller)
8Ball Music (represented by Floris Janssen)
AIM (represented by Paul Pacifico)
AMAEI (represented by Ana Rita Feijao)
Beggars Group (represented by Martin Mills)
BIMA (represented by Geert de Blaere)
Cooking Vinyl (represented by Martin Goldschmidt)
Cosmos Music Group (represented by Robert Litsen)
DUP (represented by Kristoffer Rom)
Edel (represented by Jonas Haentjes)
Epitaph (represented by Roger Dorresteijn)
E7LG – Eleven Seven Label Group (represented by Dan Waite)
Everlasting Records (represented by Mark Kitcatt)
FONO (represented by Larry Bringsjord)
HAIL (represented by Zsolt Jeges)
IndieCo (represented by Tapio Korjus)
INDIERO (represented by Dan Muraru)
IndieSuisse (represented by Andreas Ryser)
Kobalt (represented by Paul Hitchman)
PIAS Music Group (represented by Michel Lambot)
Playground Music Scandinavia (represented by Jonas Sjöström)
PMI (represented by Francesca Trainini)
RUNDA (represented by Dario Drastata)
SCL / Lusitanian (represented by Nuno Saraiva)
SOM (represented by Eva Karman Reinhold)
STOMP (represented by Kees van Weijen)
Sugar Music (represented by Andrea Cotromano)
UFI (represented by Sonia Duran)
UPFI (represented by Jérôme Roger)
VTMÖ (represented by Alexander Hirschenhauser)
VUT (represented by Jörg Heidemann)
Wagram Music (represented by Stephan Bourdoiseau)
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