Independent music in the Gulf is released by small companies and single artists who each deal with platforms and collection bodies alone. The Gulf Independents Alliance is a proposed association that lets them act together: one voice to platforms, one set of published standards, and representation with the bodies that collect money on their behalf. Mazufa is convening the founding and is asking others to join at this stage.
Why an alliance
A platform negotiates with a large catalogue once and with fifty small ones never. A collection body registers a large label's works and loses a small one's in the queue. An association that speaks for many catalogues at once changes who gets a meeting, and shared standards change how much of each catalogue gets paid.
The alliance is not a distributor and does not touch members' music or money. It negotiates terms that members may each choose to use, publishes standards that members agree to meet, and represents members where one voice is heard and many are not.
What the alliance is meant to do
None of this replaces a member's own agreements; it adds a shared position each member decides how to use.
- Negotiate with platforms collectively, on terms that any member may adopt in its own agreement
- Publish shared standards for metadata, rights documentation and anti-fraud practice, open to anyone to read and use
- Represent members with collection bodies in the region and abroad: registration, claims and unanswered queries
- Keep a public register of members and the standards each has adopted
- Hold an open annual meeting where the accounts and the year's work are presented
The principles
These six lines go into the charter as written here. Founding members may add to them, not remove them.
- One member, one vote, whatever the size of the catalogue
- Open books: the accounts and every agreement the alliance signs are available to members in full
- No exclusivity: membership does not restrict any other agreement a member holds
- Members keep their own deals: nothing negotiated by the alliance replaces a member's agreement unless the member chooses it
- Standards are published for everyone, members or not
- No member, including the founder, holds a veto
Who can join
Membership is open to independent distributors, independent labels and self-releasing artists based in a Gulf state or releasing Gulf music from elsewhere. An applicant shows that it controls the rights to the catalogue it releases and agrees to meet the published standards within the period set in the membership terms. Companies owned by a major label or a platform cannot be members.
Members pay nothing to apply or to join at the founding stage. Any later fee is decided by a vote of members, published in advance, and set at a level a single artist can pay.
What founding members commit to
Founding members are asked for time and candour, not money. Each one commits to the following for the first year.
- Attend the founding meetings and vote on the charter
- Adopt the first metadata and rights-documentation standards in its own catalogue, and report where it falls short
- Share, in confidence with the alliance, the platform terms it currently holds, so the collective position rests on facts
- Name one person who answers for the member within the alliance
- Nobody is asked for money at the founding stage, and no founding member gets a larger vote for being there first
The founding steps
The founding runs in five steps, in this order. Each step is reported to everyone who has registered interest, by email, in Arabic and English.
- Register interest through the form on this page
- A draft charter is sent to everyone registered, with the principles above written in full
- A founding meeting, held online and in one Gulf city, discusses and amends the draft
- Founding members vote on the charter and elect a first board of at least five people from at least three countries
- The alliance registers as an association in a Gulf state chosen by the founding vote, and the public register opens
Questions
Is this a Mazufa product?
No. Mazufa, through MAZUFA FOR MUSIC PRODUCTION AND DISTRIBUTION, CR 164552-1, Bahrain, convenes the founding at its own cost. Once the board is elected, Mazufa is one member with one vote. The founding members decide the charter, and the alliance does not distribute music or handle members' money.
Can an artist who releases through another distributor join?
Yes. Self-releasing artists and artists on any independent distributor can join as members in their own right. Membership does not change where they distribute.
What happens if too few founding members come forward?
The draft charter, the standards work and the register of interest stay public, and anyone can pick them up. No one will have paid anything, and no agreement will have been signed on anyone's behalf.