Independents Recognized With 273 Grammy Nominations

New York, NY (Top40 Charts/ Shore Fire Media) - A2IM, the American Association of Independent Music, congratulates this year's GRAMMY Award nominees and, in particular, is very pleased with the tremendous recognition given to independent music labels and artists by the voting members of The Recording Academy. Of the 542 total nominations for the 53rd Annual GRAMMY Awards, independents were celebrated with 273 - just over half!

A2IM Vice President Jim Mahoney says, "The music of independent labels and artists has a significant history, offering cultural diversity and breaking new ground for music fans. This year, for the first time since A2IM started keeping track, independent labels and artists scored over 50% of the nominations; a true sign of the continued strength and importance of independent music."

Riding a two-year winning streak for Album of the Year Grammys (2009's "Fearless" by Taylor Swift on Big Machine Records and 2008's "Raising Sand" collaboration by Alison Krauss & Robert Plant from Rounder Records), excellent independent music continues to be recognized by the voting members of The Recording Academy.

Independent releases are nominated in 88 of the 108 Grammy categories in which awards will be given, including top categories Album of the Year and Best New Artist. Many categories were dominated by indies, including Best Pop Instrumental Album, Best Electronic/Dance Album, Best Latin Rock Album, and all of the Jazz, Classical, Reggae, Americana, Blues, Bluegrass, and Folk categories.

Mahoney continues, "We applaud the recognition of our entire independent label community. Independents come in all shapes and sizes, business models and music genres. For every independent, garnering a Grammy nomination is a reward and testament to the tremendous contributions that music loving independents offer to music fans and reflects the hard work poured into supporting these great artists by their labels."

Among the many independents that have been recognized by The Recording Academy this year, there are large independent music label groups like Concord (over 20 nominations across numerous music genres), artist owned indies like Skaggs Family Records (4 nominations), breakout successes like Best New Artist nominees Mumford & Sons from Glassnote Records and Esperanza Spalding from HeadsUp, labels that have become synonymous with their music genres like Alligator Records in blues (2 nominations) and Naxos in classical (more than 20 nominations), and exciting labels that are experiencing exceptional successes this year such as Nacional Records (3 nominations), Mack Avenue (5 nominations), and HighNote/Savant (4 nominations). The list goes on and on.
For a full list of A2IM member nominees, visit: https://www.a2im.org.