Independent labels to top the agenda at BPI AGM.

The BPI is to use its AGM this week to unveil a tie-up with the Official Charts Company offering new data services to help independent labels compete with the majors.

The AGM takes place on Wednesday afternoon at the Mayfair Hotel in central London, and will include talks from BPI chief executive Geoff Taylor and BBC environmental reporter David Shukman, who will update members on the music industry's efforts to go green.

Preceding it in the morning is the BPI's Annual Conference for Members (ACM), which is overseen by BPI director of international and independent member services Julian Wall.

Wall says that the overriding theme of this year's ACM is "taking care of business" and as such the event will include a presentation from OCC managing director Martin Talbot on a new data service his company is offering for indie labels.

"We wanted to target a specific service for indies," Talbot explains. "One of the issues is our data is a very expensive system to maintain and keep developing, so it is really set up as a premium service. That means it is out of the reach of smaller companies."

To address this, the OCC is to offer a new Online Gold service, as well as a number of pre-packaged data reports, both aimed at indie labels with a market share of less than 0.1%. The service would suit, "Somebody who may only be putting out a couple of records a year, maybe it's a one-man band," Talbot explains.

Online Gold will, for an annual subscription cost of #1,500 plus VAT, allow labels access to all the OOC UK charts, top-line market statistics for the music and video markets, midweek sales flashes on Tuesdays and Thursdays, record company market share tables by month, quarter and year and a product search function providing sales information on the label's own releases.