MoS Gripe With AIM Rumbles On
February 27, 2007
- Global
| Indies
By Lars Brandle, London
Dance music giant Ministry of Sound has stepped up its war of words against the Association of Independent Music, ahead of the trade body's emergency board meeting tomorrow morning.
MoS, by way of its legal representatives, has accused AIM and Impala, the European independent music companies trade association, of having effectively made "a complete departure from the stated constitutional aims of both companies," in response to Impala's recent decision to back Warner Music Group's approach for EMI. AIM is a member of Impala.
As previously reported, London-based MoS resigned from AIM over its support of Impala's decision to back a WMG-EMI deal. Fellow AIM member Gut followed suit, quietly splitting with AIM.
In an “open letter” to AIM's chair/CEO Alison Wenham, the dance music specialist says any agreement struck between Impala and WMG "falls far short of what is needed to be negotiated," and says it and other AIM members were "highly suspicious" about the way in which this issue has been handled.
"In the circumstances," it reads, "MoS would have expected Impala to have negotiated a package worth in excess of US$100 million to compensate the European independent music industry for the devastating damage done by this approval."
The letter, seen by Billboard.biz, was issued this afternoon by way of MoS's counsel, Blake Lapthorn Tarlo Lyons.
In it, MoS calls upon AIM and Impala to make public all correspondence with WMG on the proposed merger. "AIM must now take whatever steps it can to rectify the fundamentally misconceived actions of Impala," the letter notes.
By late afternoon, AIM had yet to receive the letter, a spokesman for the association tells Billboard.biz.
According to sources, AIM's board members will meet Wednesday morning in London to discuss the WMG-EMI situation, and will vote to decide AIM's stance.
AIM insiders insist most of its members support the Impala/WMG deal.
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