Independents Score Nods in Top GRAMMY Categories; Earn Half of all Nominations for 4th Year Running

A2IM, the American Association of Independent Music, congratulates this year's Grammy Award nominees, and specifically recognizes the independent music labels and artists that earned 199 nominations out of 398 non-producer category nominations - half of all nominees for the fourth consecutive year. Independents showed their diversity and might scoring a majority of nominations in 39 of the 80 non-producer categories. For 16 of the evening's categories, including Best Folk Album and Best Pop Instrumental Album, Independents secured 100% of the nominations. Leading the way for the Independents were labels Concord Music Group, Big Machine, and Beggars Group while Macklemore & Ryan Lewis' 7 nominations were joined by Independent label artists Queens of the Stone Age, Paul McCartney and Taylor Swift with 3 nominations each to put a point on this celebration of Independents by Grammy voters.

Jim Mahoney, A2IM Vice President, says, "Again, The Recording Academy did a great job of recognizing some of the incredible and diverse music out on Independent labels this year. We couldn't be more thrilled for these dedicated, deserving labels to be recognized this year for their hard work, it's truly impressive."

Mahoney continued, "Congratulations to all of the nominees and here's to a celebration ringing with independent spirit come January."

About A2IM:

A2IM is a not-for-profit trade organization serving the Independent music community as a unified voice representing a sector that, according to Billboard Magazine, comprises 34.5% 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.

The organization's board of directors is composed of the following: Concord Records President Glenn Barros; Daptone Records General Manager Cathy Bauer; Smithsonian Folkways Recordings Director of Marketing & Sales Richard James Burgess; 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; Glassnote Records General Manager Chris Scully; Naxos of America CEO Jim Selby; Dead Oceans/Jagjaguwar/Secretly Canadian Founder/Co-Owner Darius Van Arman; Razor & Tie COO Victor Zaraya.

For more information, or to become a member, please visit http://a2im.org/

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