During its annual general meeting in Hamburg at the Reeperbahn Festival, IMPALA elected a new board. Lampshade Media, Kobalt Music Recordings and Sugar Music are new additions to the 27 board members.
The European indie labels body said its priorities include addressing the value gap, working closely with artists on a strategic level, fostering new investment and ensuring fair competition between small and large players, particularly in the digital market.
IMPALA and Merlin have also been closely involved in Warner Music Group’s long-running divestment of Parlophone Label Group assets to independent companies , which will conclude on September 30.
Mark Kitcatt of Everlasting Records in Spain was elected as the new chair. IMPALA's president is Kees van Weijen, representing Dutch association STOMP. Geert De Blaere, as representative of Belgian association BIMA, was re-elected for a new mandate as treasurer. Helen Smith will continue in her role as executive chair.
Two board members were elected to join the organisation's management board: Noemí Planas (Spanish association UFI) and Jörg Heidemann (German association VUT) will serve alongside the newly elected president, chair and treasurer as well as continuing management board members Francesca Trainini, Martin Mills and Michel Lambot.
“One of our main tasks is closing the value gap and also the power gap,” said president, Kees van Weijen.“These are hot topics at the moment with Europe leading the way.”
Helen Smith, executive chair, added: “We will see a lot of change in Europe over the next two years. Mark, Kees and Geert will do a great job steering the ship and with Noemi and Jörg joining the management board team, we are in excellent shape. Our new board members Lampshade Media, Kobalt Music Recordings, and Sugar Music will also bring a lot to the table."
The full list of IMPALA members elected to the Board is:
!K7 (represented by Horst Weidenmüller)
8Ball Music (represented by Floris Janssen)
AIM (represented by Paul Pacifico)
AMAEI (represented by Nuno Saraiva)
Beggars Group (represented by Martin Mills)
BIMA (represented by Geert de Blaere)
Cooking Vinyl (represented by Martin Goldschmidt)
Cosmos Music Group (represented by Fredrik Ekander)
DUP (represented by Kasper Find)
Edel (represented by Jonas Sjöström)
Epitaph (represented by Roger Dorresteijn)
Everlasting Records (represented by Mark Kitcatt)
FONO (represented by Larry Bringsjord)
IndieCo (represented by Tapio Korjus)
IndieSuisse (represented by Andreas Ryser)
Kobalt Music Recordings (represented by Paul Hitchman)
Lampshade Media (represented by Nikola Jovanovic)
[PIAS] Music Group (represented by Michel Lambot)
Playground Music Scandinavia (represented by Jonas Sjöström)
PMI (represented by Francesca Trainini)
SOM (represented by Anders Engström)
STOMP (represented by Kees van Weijen)
Sugar Music (represented by Andrea Cotromano)
UFI (represented by Noemi Planas)
UPFI (represented by Jérôme Roger)
VUT (represented by Jörg Heidemann)
Wagram Music (represented by Stephan Bourdoiseau)
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