KEY POINTS:
An industry body representing dozens of independent music labels expects hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of licensing deals to flow to local artists through the formation of a global group to represent them.
Independent Music New Zealand joins similar trade groups from a dozen countries in joining Merlin, which will negotiate music licensing deals on behalf of its thousands of members with music download sites like Apple's iTunes.com and mobile phone service providers.
Small local labels representing popular acts such as Scribe, P Money, Savage, Phoenix Foundation and SJD can now go through Merlin to seek licensing deals globally. One major deal in particular will give independent labels access to MyStore, the music e-tailing part of the Myspace.com social networking website.
IMNZ's deputy chairman, Joost Langeveld, said with Merlin the local independent music scene would "step closer to being a viable marketplace".
"Effectively it will mean hundreds of thousands of dollars will flow through to the New Zealand music community."
He said independent labels had less bargaining power than the big four music labels - Universal Music, Sony BMG, EMI and Warner Music, when it came to hammering out deals with digital content providers.
"What has been happening is that major labels with deep pockets can afford to do deals and litigate to the detriment of indies," sais Langeveld.
IMNZ chairman Mark Kneebone, who also runs the Tardus music label, helped set up Merlin and will represent New Zealand and other small countries in the group.
Not all of the independent labels signing up with Merlin are small.
Beggars Group, which has The White Stripes, Basement Jaxx and the Pixies among its acts, will seek to strike licensing deals through Merlin.
"In terms of turnover, [Beggars] is probably bigger than the turnover of all the labels in New Zealand," said Langeveld. "One can imagine with the future of TV on the internet and digital music, there's plenty of scope."
Langeveld said it was unclear yet whether the formation of Merlin would lead to more lucrative licensing deals being struck by independent labels, but it would be easier to get deals with music e-tailers and mobile phone companies.
Andy Williams, new media manager at Wellington-based Loop Recordings, which has The Black Seeds, Fly My Pretties and OE Brazil on its books, said Merlin would make the task of striking music deals overseas easier.
"If it's purely for licensing it's going to be great. We're going to hear a lot more New Zealand music on overseas TV and adverts," he said.
But Loop had achieved remarkable success in digital music sales on its own, securing a deal to have its artists' music listed on iTunes in several territories.
The deal with the music e-tailing king had come about through "wrangling and continued pitching at music conferences", but could now be extended to any artist Loop agreed to represent.
"Anyone who has the goods, a mastered album with a barcode, we can have up there within five days," said Williams.
Loop took a 20 per cent cut of revenue coming from iTunes, with the artist receiving the rest.
Williams said album sales and even digital downloads were not the "be all and end all" for independent artists, who increasingly were looking to advertisements, soundtracks and video games to generate revenue.
The Black Seeds and Fly My Pretties featured on the soundtrack to the popular US television series Weeds and Loop artists would also appear on the video game Jackass, which is being made for global release by Wellington game developer Sidhe Interactive.
Rock act Steriogram won a major coup and a lucrative pay day when its song Walkie Talkie Man was used in an advert for the Apple iPod.
"If you look at the top 40 charts, 25 to 50 per cent of the artists get deals on the basis of one song," said Williams.
"A brand trying to sell its product often sells the band as well."
Peter Baker, who distributes the music of artists such as Fat Freddys Drop and Hollie Smith through his company, Rhythmethod, said he was only starting to come to terms with the implications of digital music and hoped Merlin would not become too big and unwieldy to properly represent the indies.
"I'm fearful that in five years' time, a small independent act will just be a dot on the horizon for [Merlin]."
Music industry veteran Trevor Reekie, who has represented bands including Tadpole and Pluto on his Antenna Records label, said despite the resurgence in kiwi music, the industry had always struggled from lack of scale, an area where Merlin could help.
"But it certainly won't turn around the freefall in the industry," he said.
"I believe an artist doesn't need a label any more and I've run a label for 20 years."
Reekie said local artists were achieving great success carrying out many of the functions of music labels themselves.
"Fat Freddys Drop is the biggest thing in music here in the last five years and they've done it on their own," he said.
