A far-reaching pact between a talent management consortium and a one-stop e-commerce music shop could pave the way for acts in Canada to by-pass conventional record deals and sell directly to a global online audience.
The Canadian chapter of the International Music Managers Forum (IMMF) has signed on to an agreement with the Independent Online Distribution Alliance (IODA), a one-stop e-commerce technology provider that has links to 400 digital music stores around the world.
MMF Canada President and IMMF Board member Brian Hetherman says the deal is an important one: “This will bring established and developing Canadian artists and their music to the forefront of the international stage, and make their music available for sale to the world through multiple digital shops and opportunities provided by IODA. We are very excited to be a part of it.â€
Expanding on the program, IODA founder and CEO Kevin Arnold praised the IMMF for choosing the IODA as its global partner. Instead of relying on the traditional label system to release content, Arnold says that “artists and managers can do it themselves, easily distributing and managing both new material and the unique recordings that may be collecting dust in their attics.
“With the IODA Promonet network of more than 3,000 digital retailers, music websites, social networks, bloggers and other online taste makers.”
What the IODA brings to the table is an established network of online retailers and a cookie-cutter template that provides acts with a simple solution to create, market and conduct e-commerce transactions using IODA’s invisible back-shop infrastructure.
The IODA also has a widget that exponentially expands the realm of possibility for e-commerce transactions. Music fans can install the web interface on social websites and blogs with a link-back to online music retailers or artist websites.
With over 100 members nationally, the Music Managers Forum Canada (The MMF Canada) is a non-profit organization operating under the umbrella organization, International Music Managers Forum (IMMF).
