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InsideSHOWS
> The 2012 RPMDA convention
attracted more
than 230 attendees.
> The show featured 47
print music publishers
and related services in
the exhibit hall.
> More than 30 first-time
members attended the
convention.
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5
RETAIL PRINT MUSIC DEALERS ASSOCIATION CONVENTION I BY ZACH PHILLIPS
SEIZING DIGITAL
This year’s Retail Print
Music Dealers Association
(RPMDA)
convention issued a
clarion call to music
retailers and publishers: Embrace
change, or be changed.
Held May 2–5 at the Hilton
Los Angeles hotel, the show
featured the very L.A. theme
“There’s No Business Like Your
Business.” And during those
36 I MUSIC INC. I JULY 2012
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Retailers at
RPMDA seek
ways to stand
out in the
digital realm
four days, dealers learned ways
to adapt to and stand out in the
fierce world of Amazon.com,
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iDevices and digital everything.
“I’m reminded of Eastman
Kodak filing for bankruptcy,”
said Mark Cabaniss, senior
vice president of Word Music.
“They did not embrace the digital
technologies soon enough. For
retailers, they need to remember
to see change as their friend.”
Digital strategies took first
place at RPMDA’s “Best Ideas”
session. Winner Lori Supinie,
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president of Senseney Music,
offered a new concept for crosspromoting
physical print music
with digital sheet downloads
— a business that has become
1. Alfred’s Ron Manus (left) and Bryan Bradley; 2.
FJH’s Claire Cornish and Kevin Hackinson; 3. Carl
Fischer’s Chris Scialfa and Mary Alice McDonald;
4. Arpeges-Diffusion’s Pierre Cotelle; 5. Outgoing
RPMDA President Gayle Beacock presents the
President’s Award to Ward-Brodt Music’s Mick
Faulhaber; 6. Retail Up!’s Gordon O’Hara; 7. The
Hal Leonard team indulges its inner Julia Child