Speaking with DMN during his last Indie Week as President and CEO of A2IM, Richard James Burgess reflects on growing the event during his ten years with the organization. He also shares his fears that the industry might divide because of individual ‘micro interests.’ Burgess will be stepping down at the end of the year.
At A2IM Indie Week 2025, held at the InterContinental Hotel in Times Square, New York City, Richard Burgess spoke with DMN about the ‘split’ between music and tech, A2IM’s progress, and the next phase of his life.
“It’s my last Indie Week, my last Awards, and I’m confident that I’m leaving the organization in a good place. I’m excited to see what the next person does and where they take it. We’ve grown this thing to a substantial size, and I’m excited to see it [expand] ten times bigger under the next person.
Burgess believes Indie Week is becoming a hub for the independent sector because it’s strategically focused on independent issues. “You’re not being distracted by a thousand other different things that may not be as relevant to you if you are an independent,” he said.
“The world needed an international marketplace and conference, and I think Indie Week is becoming that.”
Speaking about the issues he foresees for the music industry, Burgess said, “Unfortunately, it’s the same old issue that we’ve been experiencing since 1999. How do we get paid for the use of our copyright?”
“We spend a lot of money creating these copyrights. Artists spend a lot of time and their own money on creating copyrights, and then you have tech companies that don’t want to pay — or don’t want to pay enough — for them.”
Addressing ‘TikTok and the AI companies wanting IP for free,’ Burgess said, “Every organization in the world would love to get their raw materials for free. But music is not available for free. It should not be available for free.”
Discussing his future after stepping down from A2IM at the end of the year, Burgess expressed his excitement for ‘the next phase.’
“I’m working on a music tech company. We’re still in the building phase, and I don’t want to say too much, but I’m pretty psyched about it.”
Burgess’ proudest moments during his tenure as President of A2IM and head of Indie Week was watching how much they developed over the last ten years. “I’ve stood on the shoulders of giants, and my predecessors did an amazing job. You can only lift it so much over a period of time, and my predecessors each lifted the organization as far as they could in their tenure. I’ve done the same, and I hope the next person does the same again,” he said.
Burgess’s biggest fear about the music industry is that it might become divided if it allows ‘micro interests’ to win over the collective good of the industry.
“It’s important that everybody stays focused and we put our money where it’s important — otherwise we will get defeated. [As a result,] we’ll wind up seeing music be used for free, and that’s not good for artists and the industry.”
Burgess also spoke of his tremendous faith in music. With a PhD in ethnomusicology, he believes music is essential. “Ethnomusicology is the anthropology of music. If you look back in history, there aren’t any civilizations that have not had some form of music.”
“Inherently, I think human beings like to make noise that’s musical in some form or another. I think music’s going to be around forever,” he said.
Speaking about how tech drives challenges for independent artists in today’s dynamic climate, Burgess highlighted that tech is not the enemy.
“The split is not between tech and music. It’s about the business model that the tech companies decide to apply.”
Burgess believes what causes the split is the tech companies’ expectation of having access to music for free — so they can feed their bottom line and make money. He said, “You have cool tech? We have cool music. You should make money, and we should make money. That’s how it should be.”
“As long as I’m around, it won’t be available for free,” Burgess said.
Awards & Events, DMN TV, dmntv
This post was originally authored and published by Marc Thompson Digital Music News via RSS Feed. Join today to get your news feed on Nationwide Report®.
