Merlin Is Alive! Lifesigns from The MIDEM-announced New Media Indie Group

I hope you still remember the January MIDEM conference in Cannes, France, where a new media-rights organization called Merlin was announced. Well, even if many (including me) have thought that it had died just after the announced birth, it looks like during the last months they have been rather active and have organized the way they will act as well as pre-defined their goals and future directions.

Namely, the interim board of Merlin was announced, at the same time with Merlin's new CEO, Charles Caldas declaration that he will relocate from Melbourne to London so that the new organism can effectively start working on April 23rd, as specced. This announced interim board will be disbanded as soon as a permanent sitting board will be elected and agreed with.

For those of you who do not remember, Merlin were the first to close a deal with SNOCAP which would allow independent artists to sell their music via the new and somehow controversial online outlet MyStore, administered by MySpace.

As Billboard.biz beautifully and clearly explains, "the independent community have created the non-profit Merlin to function as a one-stop digital-rights licensing shop. It replaces the need for individually-brokered deals and aims to provide independents with the same clout as the majors when negotiating to have their repertoire used on international digital services."

So far, artists like White Stripes or Arctic Monkey have signed various deals for distribution via Merlin-managed routes and both artists and their producers have acclaimed this move: basically Merlin will be able to negotiate with a lot of downloading sites throughout Australia, Brazil, Canada, France, Israel, Japan, South Africa, Spain and the U.S. while this list is constantly growing much to the overall growth of the industry. Independent music (labels and artists) are reportedly holding about 27% of the whole music market and 80% from the total of new releases around the world.

In the end, here's Merlin's interim board, as announced by the Merlin CEO, Charles Caldas (former CEO of Shock Records):

U.S.
- Tom Silverman, chairman and CEO, Tommy Boy Records (U.S.), board member A2IM
- Glen A. Barros, president and CEO, Concord Music Group Inc. (U.S.)

Europe
- Martin Mills, chairman, Beggars Group (U.K.), chairman, IMPALA
- Michel Lambot, co-president, PIAS (Belgium)
- Horst Weidenmueller, CEO, !K7 Records (Germany), vice-president, IMPALA

Rest of World
- Takashi Kamide, senior adviser, MS Entertainment (Japan)
- Mark Kneebone, Tardus Music (New Zealand), chairman, IMNZ (Independent
Music Trade Body, New Zealand)

Non-Regional
- Alison Wenham, president, WIN, chairman and CEO, AIM (Association of
Independent Music, U.K.)
- Charles Caldas, CEO, Merlin (formerly CEO Shock Entertainment Group,
Australia)