BPI and Aim discuss future links.

Instant Karma founder Rob Dickins is to become chairman of the BPI for a fourth successive term as the record industry trade body enters one of the most crucial periods in its 29-year history.

Dickins, currently serving his sixth year (and second stint), will expect to have his appointment rubber stamped at the BPI AGM on July 25, which will make him the second-longest serving chairman after LG Wood, who held the position for eight years.

However, while the BPI opts for continuity in its choice of chairman, Dickins, director general Andrew Yeates and the rest of the BPI council are currently facing tough decisions over the future mapping of the industry's trade bodies because the BPI and the Association of Independent Music (Aim) are locked in negotiations about their future relationship.

The current three-year deal between the two organisations -- which has seen the BPI re-route to the indie body around 540,000 [pounds sterling] in subscription income (180,000 [pounds sterling] each year) paid by the 35 Aim founder members -- comes to an end this year.

Aim, which now has 510 members, about 70 of whom also have BPI membership, is now asking that any future deal should include a form of reciprocal membership. Under its "headline proposal" all record labels, irrespective of their membership affiliation, would be allowed access to the services provided by each body, thus avoiding the need for duplication of departments such as market research.

Beggars Banquet chairman Martin Mills, a former BPI council member and a founder member of Aim, says, "One envisages a reciprocal relationship as being necessary for the basis of a deal."

But it is ...