A2IM: American Association of Independent Music

Posted in News, Press Releases by A2IM

On Dec 6th, the final nominations for the 55^th Annual GRAMMY Awards were announced and once again independents were clearly celebrated by the voting members of The Recording Academy scoring 210 of the 393 non-producer category nominations.

Independents have nominations in 68 of the 79 counted categories including Record of the Year (Taylor Swift, Big Machine Records), Album of the Year (Mumford & Sons “Babel”, Glassnote) and 2 of the Best New Artist nominees (Alabama Shakes, ATO Records and The Lumineers, Dualtone Music Group).  Demonstrating the contribution that independents make to all music genres, categories such as Best Pop Instrumental Album, Best Jazz Vocal Album, Best Latin Jazz Album, Best Latin Rock, Urban or Alternative Album, Best Americana Album, Best Bluegrass Album, Best Folk Album, Best Blues Album and nearly all of the Classical Album categories were dominated by independent nominations.

For a full list of A2IM member nominees, click HERE. If you are an A2IM member, who had an artist who was nominated that is not listed here, please let us know.

This morning A2IM’s PR firm Shore Fire Media issued the below press release celebrating our community’s success.  Congratulations and good luck to all of our members and their artists and we look forward to celebrating a great night in February.

Read the Press Here From FMQB

A2IM
For Immediate Release
December 6, 2012

Independents Log Half of All GRAMMY Noms For 3rd Consecutive Year

A2IM, the American Association of Independent Music, congratulates this year’s Grammy Award nominees, in particular recognizing the independent music labels and artists that earned 210 nominations out of 393 non‐producer category nominations ‐ half of all nominees for the third consecutive year. Independents were led by huge nights for Mumford & Sons, Alabama Shakes, The Lumineers, Ultra Music, Smithsonian Folkways, Naxos of America, and Concord Music Group, the independent label leader in total GRAMMY nominations with 26 total nods.

Jim Mahoney, A2IM Vice President, says, “What an exciting night for so many independent labels and artists… from independent leaders Concord Music Group, Glassnote, Ultra Records and ATO to the outstanding people at Sunnyside Records,Mack Avenue, Nacional, and Compass Records…outstanding!”

Of the multiple nominations for Mumford & Sons’ ‘Babel,’ Glassnote CEO Daniel Glass said “‘Babel’ continues to prove itself and touch people. We are elated, inspired, and proud of Mumford & Sons and their very talented producer Markus Dravs.”

Echoed ATO Records GM Jon Salter, “We’re so proud to be working with the Alabama Shakes. The band’s talent and passion brings an energy to the music that’s touching listeners across the country. Congratulations to the Shakes and all the devoted fans.” Nicole Blonder, Sr. Director of Marketing and Sales for Mute Records continued, “We’re so proud of M83 and the entire team! Everyone’s worked incredibly hard to have this masterpiece of an album be recognized by the industry. It’s been an amazing year!”  Dualtone Music’s Marketing Director Paul Roper expressed similar sentiments, “We are honored to have The Lumineers included in the list of Grammy nominees for Best New Artist and  Best Americana Album. It’s incredibly gratifying and humbling for the label and the band that their music is being received so well on this scale. It’s an incredible time to be an indie and it’s wonderful to see the community so well represented in both these categories.”

“On behalf of everyone who pours their hearts and souls into the great artists on independent labels,” continued Mahoney, “A2IM couldn’t be prouder or more pleased for the recognition that the voting members of The Recording Academy showered upon this community tonight. Congrats to all of the nominees and we look forward to a big independent celebration in February.”

Posted in News by A2IM

A2IM and eMusic Partner For Fan-Voted Libera Award
Up & Comer Award Category Voted On By eMusic Members

Today, the American Association of Independent (A2IM) Music Libera Awards (”The Libbies”) announces eMusic as a partner for the “Up & Comer Artist” category, which will celebrate the next great U.S. independent artist(s) with two special honors.

The A2IM Libera Award for “Up & Comer Artist presented by eMusic” will consist of two awards, determined by two separate votes: one by the A2IM member community and another by an eMusic member vote – giving both the music industry and music fans the opportunity to choose the next breakthrough independent artist(s).

“We’re thrilled to support the inaugural American Association of Independent Music Libera Awards,” said Molly Neuman, VP of Label Relations and MD Europe, eMusic. “Through this partnership, we’ll be giving members a unique way to participate in the exciting conversations about who will be the next big independent music superstar.”

A2IM is accepting nominations for all 11 Libby categories now through March 30th, 2012. Submissions are being accepted at A2IM.org.

Nominations are being managed via a partnership between A2IM & Official.fm and can be submitted by all U.S. independents or their representatives. A2IM Libera Award winners will be announced at an awards ceremony on June 21st at Le Poisson Rouge in NYC.

Click below to submit nominations in the following Libera Award categories:

Award: Independent Album of the Year presented by Official.fm

Award: Indie Label of the Year Award (5 Employees or less worldwide)

Award: Indie Label of the Year Award (6 Employees or more worldwide)

Award: Up and Comer Award presented by eMusic – celebrating the next independent label superstar artist; to qualify artist must have total career sales not exceeding 5,000 full length albums or 25,000 tracks (combined)

Award: Video of the Year

Award: Best Sync Usage – for the most creative or most impactful use of independent music in a film/tv/ad campaign

Award: Music Supervisor of the Year – for the music supervisor/licensing person who was especially supportive of independent music labels and artists in the last 12 months

Award: Light Bulb Award – celebrating the most innovative/creative marketing campaign by an independent label or artist in the last 12 months

Award: Road Warrior of the Year – celebrating the independent label band/artist that worked hardest at their job in the last 12 months

Award: 21st Century Award – celebrating the service provider or platform that was most beneficial to independent labels and artists in the last 12 months

Award: Creative Packaging Award (Physical or Digital) – celebrating the best or most creative packaging – including bundled packages, premium offerings or artwork/design packaging – from an independent label or artist in the last 12 months

About A2IM
A2IM is a not-for-profit trade organization serving the Independent music community as a unified voice representing a sector that comprises over 30% of the music industry’s market share in the United States (and almost 40% of SoundScan digital album sales). The organization represents the Independents’ interests in the marketplace, in the media, on Capitol Hill, and as part of the global music community. A2IM is headquartered in New York City.

The organization’s board of directors is composed of the following: Concord Music Group President Glen Barros; Sub Pop VP Business Affairs Eric Brown; tinyOGRE Entertainment COO Jim Cooperman; Epitaph General Manager Dave Hansen; Yep Roc Records co-owner Tor Hansen; Alligator Records Founder/CEO Bruce Iglauer; The Beggars Group Founder/CEO Martin Mills; Kill Rock Stars President Portia Sabin; Jim Selby, Naxos of America CEO, Tommy Boy CEO/Founder Tom Silverman; Razor & Tie COO Victor Zaraya.

About eMusic
eMusic is a discovery-and-download destination for music collectors. eMusic Members sign up for a monthly subscription that allows them to discover, download and own music. In addition to providing recommendations, eMusic’s editorial team publishes original artist interviews, album reviews, and curated streaming radio programming. eMusic also sells downloadable audio books from all major audio book publishers. Headquartered in New York with an office in London, eMusic is available in the U.S., Canada, the E.U., Norway and Switzerland. eMusic.com Inc. is owned by Dimensional Associates, Inc., the private equity arm of JDS Capital Management, Inc. For more information, visit http://www.eMusic.com.
NOTE: eMusic and the eMusic logo are either registered trademarks or trademarks of eMusic.com Inc. in the U.S. and other countries. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.

For more information, or to become a member of A2IM, please visit www.a2im.org.

For press information on A2IM, please contact Elizabeth Lutz (elutz@shorefire.com) or David McTiernan (dmctiernan@shorefire.com) at Shore Fire Media, 718.522.7171.

Posted in News by A2IM

A2IM Adds 15 New Label Members Including Big Machine, Jagjaguwar/Secretly Canadian, S-Curve & VP Records

A2IM Also Adds 15 New Service Provider Associate Members

The A2IM community is growing and over the past few months the organization has added a 15 new label members, bringing the imprint total to over 270 independently owned labels. The new members include many leading independent music labels and represent a broad cross-section of the industry, with myriad geographic locations, staff sizes, release calendars and, most importantly, musical genres. Such creation is the force that broadens the cultural diversity of the music industry here in the U.S. and abroad.

A2IM welcomes the following new label members:
-    Allegro Media Group (Portland, OR)
-    Alliance Records (New York, NY)
-    Adroit Records (Nashville, TN)
-    Big Machine Records/Valory Records (Nashville, TN)
-    Bright Antenna (San Francisco, CA)
-    Dolly Records (Nashville, TN)
-    Jagjaguwar Records/Secretly Canadian/Dead Oceans (Bloomington, IN)
-    Krishnamurthy Tandon Foundation (New York, NY)
-    Maverick Music Group (Midlothian, VA)
-    S-Curve Records (New York, NY)
-    United Musicians (New York, NY)
-    VP Records (Queens, NY)

“The VP Records family is proud to join our fellow independent labels in supporting the efforts of A2IM to insure that our community’s vital contribution to the music market place is properly defined and treated equitably by commerce partners entering the music space.  We appreciate A2IM as a resource assisting our team in keeping up on issues relevant to our business and on methods to maximize revenue streams.” – Randy Chin (President, VP Records)

“As a label group and management company, that is the home for Aimee Mann’s Super Ego Records and Suzanne Vega’s Amanuensis Productions, we greatly appreciate the level of advocacy representation, commerce inclusion and member services provided by A2IM to our artist oriented label group and the independent music community as a whole.” - Michael Hausman of the United Musicians music label and Michael Hausman artist management

As the primary voice of independent music companies, the not-for-profit A2IM maintains a focus on forward-thinking initiatives, advocating for representation and visibility for the independent label and artist community. Recent efforts include a Billboard commentary by A2IM President Rich Bengloff, challenging Billboard and Nielsen SoundScan’s methodology for calculating market share. Bengloff and A2IM suggest calculation based on ownership of masters rather than distribution, a method that would accurately reflect the prominence of independents in today’s music market and give them the full commercial recognition they deserve.  Details on other A2IM advocacy, commerce, and member service initiatives can be found at www.a2im.org.

In addition to great new music label members, there are a 15 new associate members who have joined A2IM in 2011, bringing A2IM’s associate member total to nearly 140 companies. A2IM’s associate member community is made up of service providers who support the independent label community, recognizing that this segment of the label community is where the action is.  The new associate members are:
-    Beyond Oblivion
-    Boss Sounds
-    Clear Music Now
-    Ditto Music
-    finetunes
-    Mobile Backstage
-    Music X-Ray
-    Nail Distribution
-    Robot of the Century
-    Roqbot
-    Orpheus Media Research
-    Packet Video
-    SC Distribution/Bellwether Manufacturing
-    Stream Jam/The Electric Sheep Company
-    The Chinese Audio/Video Association

A2IM will celebrate its new members at their 6th annual SXSW breakfast this year at Austin’s Champions Sports Bar & Restaurant on Thursday, March 17 (a MEMBERS ONLY business networking event).

For more information, or to become a member, please visit www.A2IM.org.

Posted in News by A2IM

Indies Reign At Grammys Taking Home Album of the Year & Best New Artist Awards

Independent artists and labels celebrated a huge year at the 53rd Grammy® Awards, taking home 46 awards in a wide variety of categories, including Album of the Year, Best New Artist as well as Best Album Awards in over a dozen categories.

Arcade Fire’s ‘The Suburbs’ win for Album of the Year marks the third consecutive win for Indies in the leading category, following 2010’s winner Taylor Swift’s ‘Fearless’ (Big Machine), and 2009’s winner Robert Plant and Alison Krauss’ ‘Raising Sand’ (Rounder).

This year also saw the first time, since A2IM started keeping track, independent labels and artists lead the nominations with over 50% of all awards; a true sign of the continued strength and importance of independent music. Altogether, independents held 273 of the 542 possible nomination spots.

Jim Mahoney, Vice President of the American Association of Independent Music (A2IM), congratulated this year’s winners, saying: “Tonight’s Independent presence at the Grammys not only demonstrates the continued growth and diversity of our labels across genres but also speaks to the quality of music that the Indies continue to create and support.”

Glen Barros, President and CEO of Concord Music Group (and A2IM board member) shared his excitement over tonight’s Indie successes and in particular Concord’s Esperanza Spalding taking the Best New Artist award: “I think I heard Cee Lo say ‘holy forgettin’ shhh’ when Esperanza won. Or maybe that was me. I’m so incredibly happy for Esperanza. She SO deserves this award, but I’m shocked that a jazz artist won against such tough competition. It’s incredible! She’s incredible! We’re so proud of our 4 other winners and all our nominees too!”

Jim Selby, CEO of Naxos USA, who co-led (with Concord Music Group) the independents party at this year’s Grammys both with five awards: “As the North American distributor for over 100 independent classical, jazz, performing arts DVD, bluegrass and American roots music labels, Naxos of America is honored to be the home for so many Grammy-winning recordings and artists this year. The diversity of our family of labels, their phenomenal artist rosters and extraordinary recordings and films remain clear evidence that independent record labels will continue to be a vital force in the recording industry for many years to come.”

George Fontaine, President of New West Records who grabbed two GRAMMYs for Crazy Heart: “We are honored to have received two Grammy Awards for Crazy Heart Original Motion Picture Soundtrack today. Congratulations to everyone who made this project such a success.”

Mike Carden, President of Operations North America for Eagle Vision who picked up the Best Long Form Video GRAMMY for “When Your Strange”: “It gives us a tremendous feeling of excitement and pride knowing that Eagle Rock Entertainment was able to bring the Doors “When You’re Strange,” to the marketplace. The feeling is further confirmed by The Recording Academy’s voting membership, that this is the best long from video release of 2010.”

Denny Stilwell, GM of Mack Avenue Records who picked up the GRAMMY for Best Gospel Song “It’s What I Do” by Kirk Whalum: “I can’t think of a more deserving Grammy winner this year than Kirk Whalum for Best Gospel Song. Congratulations, Kirk!”

Robert Williams, CEO of 335 Records whose artist Larry Carlton won the GRAMMY for Best Pop Instrumental Album: “The beauty of being involved in a GRAMMY nominated album, is that you have already won, before the results are in. Winning the award is just the icing on top.”

About A2IM:
A2IM is a not-for-profit trade organization serving the Independent music community as a unified voice representing a sector that comprises over 30% of the music industry’s market share in the United States (and almost 40% of SoundScan digital sales). The organization represents the Independents’ interests in the marketplace, in the media, on Capitol Hill, and as part of the global music community. A2IM is headquartered in New York City.

The organization’s board of directors is composed of the following: Concord Music Group President Glen Barros; Sub Pop VP Business Affairs Eric Brown; tinyOGRE Entertainment COO Jim Cooperman; Epitaph General Manager Dave Hansen; Razor & Tie Executive Vice President Dan Hoffman; The Beggars Group CEO/Founder Martin Mills; Lookout Records co-owner Molly Neuman; Kill Rock Stars President Portia Sabin; Tommy Boy CEO/Founder Tom Silverman.

For more information, or to become a member, please visit www.A2IM.org.

For press information on A2IM, please contact Elizabeth Lutz [elutz@shorefire.com] or Rebecca Shapiro [rshapiro@shorefire.com] at Shore Fire Media, 718.522.7171

Posted in Members Only, Special Offers by A2IM

EXCLUSIVE OFFER FOR A2IM MEMBERS:

Shore Fire Media has been spreading the word about A2IM, with placements ranging from the Huffington Post to the Op-Ed pages of Billboard and the New York Times, but that’s just one highlight in a busy spring for the PR and Digital Marketing firm. Shore Fire recently expanded their slate of services, formalizing a digital strategy practice that specializes in social media management, digital content and media, SEO/SEM, and targeted online advertising.

Shore Fire president Marilyn Laverty says: “Shore Fire Media recognizes that as image and brand management experts, our efforts must move seamlessly between digital and traditional media opportunities, and our mission is to be a standard-setting public relations firm in the digital age.”

On the PR side, there’s lots of indie action in the coming months, including new releases from The National and The Hold Steady to Ricky Skaggs and The Chieftains with Ry Cooder, following on the heels of “Best Album” Grammy wins for indies such as Levon Helm, Booker T. Jones, Los Texmaniacs and Loudon Wainwright III.

Other highlights include major attention for longtime client and fellow A2IM member Tunecore, work with charities and organizations such as WHYhunger, the Academy of Contemporary Music, and Berklee’s online music school berkleemusic.com — not to mention media breakthroughs for non-indies as well, such as The Zac Brown Band, Maxwell, Elvis Costello, and Bruce Springsteen.

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