A2IM 2018 Libera Award Winners

Thursday, June 21st was a great night for the Indie at A2IM’s 2018 Libera Awards, to honor all of the independent community. Our performers included Aimee Man, Natalie Prass, Raul Midon and Sam Outlaw among others, and a beautiful tribute to Sharon Jones by The Dap-Kings – who won the award for Best R&B Album for Soul of a Woman (Daptone Records).

Other winners included Aimee Mann’s Mental Illness (SuperEgo Records) for Best Roots/Folk Album, Detroit Symphony Orchestra’s Copland: Symphony No. 3 & 3 Latin American Sketches (Naxos Records), and The National’s Sleep Well Beast (4AD Records) for Best Rock Album.

Also honored were MERLIN as Independent Champion, Brett Gurewitz for Lifetime Achievement and The Funky 4 + 1 with the Independent Icon Award.

For more info on all of the nominees, check out the full Libera Awards website here

 

Best Live Act

Nick Cave
Bad Seed Ltd. 

 

Best Hip-Hop/Rap Album

Shabazz Palaces – ‘Quazarz: Born on a Gangster Star’
Sub Pop Records

 

Best American Roots/Folk Album

Aimee Mann – ‘Mental Illness’
SuperEgo Records

Best Blues Album

Benjamin Booker – ‘Witness’
ATO Records

Best Classical Album

Detroit Symphony Orchestra – ‘Copland: Symphony No. 3 & 3 Latin American Sketches’
Naxos

Best Country/Americana Album

Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit – ‘The Nashville Sound’
Southeastern Records /Thirty Tigers

Best Jazz Album

Kamasi Washington – ‘Harmony of Difference’
Young Turks

Best Latin Album

Chicano Batman – ‘Freedom Is Free’
ATO Records

 

Best Outlier Album

Moses Sumney – ‘Aromanticism’
Jagjaguwar

Best Metal Album

Converge – ‘The Dusk In Us’
Epitaph Records

Best Dance/Electronic Album

Sylvan Esso – ‘What Now’
Loma Vista Recordings

Best R&B Album

Sharon Jones & The Dap-Kings – ‘Soul of a Woman’
Daptone Records

Best Re-Issue

Elliott Smith – ‘Either/Or: Expanded Edition’
Kill Rock Stars

Best Rock Album 

The National – ‘Sleep Well Beast’
4AD

Best Sync Usage

Cigarettes After Sex – ‘Cigarettes After Sex’
Partisan Records

Best World Album

Ibeyi – ‘Ash’
XL Recordings

Independent Icon Award

Funky 4 + 1

Breakthrough Artist Award

Princess Nokia – ‘1992 Deluxe’
Rough Trade Records

 

Creative Packaging Award (1)

Bob’s Burgers – ‘The Bob’s Burgers Music Album’
Sub Pop Records

2018 A2IM Libera Awards: Independent Champion

MERLIN

2018 A2IM Libera Awards: Label of the Year (6+ employees)

Dead Oceans

Label of the Year (<5 employees)

Daptone Records

Marketing Genius Award

Run the Jewels – Call Ticketron! 646.846.RTJ3
Run the Jewels, Inc.

 

Video of the Year

Perfume Genius – “Die 4 You”
Matador Records

A2IM Lifetime Achievement Award

Brett Gurewitz

 

Independent Impact Award

Taylor Swift – ‘Reputation
Big Machine Label Group

Album of the Year

Slowdive – ‘Slowdive’
Dead Oceans

About A2IM:
A2IM is a 501(c)(6) not-for-profit trade organization headquartered in New York City that exists to support and strengthen the independent recorded music sector. Membership currently includes a broad coalition of more than 700 Independently-owned American music labels. A2IM represents these independently owned small and medium-sized enterprises’ (SMEs) interests in the marketplace, in the media, on Capitol Hill, and as part of the global music community. In doing so, it supports a key segment of America’s creative class that represents America’s diverse musical cultural heritage. Billboard Magazine identified the Independent music label sector as 37.32 percent of the music industry’s U.S. recorded music sales market in 2016 based on copyright ownership, making Independent labels collectively the largest music industry sector.

Learn more about A2IM here.
For information about how to join our community, see here.