Independents Earn Over Half Of All GRAMMY Nominations For Sixth Year Running

A2IM congratulates the 58th annual Grammy Award nominees and specifically recognizes the Independent music labels and artists that earned 205 nominations out of 405 non-producer category nominations. Independents showed both their diversity and the extraordinary achievement in recorded music of their artists, by scoring a majority of nominations in 39 of the 81 non-producer categories. For 15 of the categories, including Best Bluegrass Album, Best Regional Roots Album, Best Reggae Album, Best Contemporary Classical Composition, Best Jazz Vocal Album, and Best Latin Jazz Album, Independents secured 100% of the nominations.

Independent labels received several nominations in key categories, including Record Of The Year, Album of the Year, Song Of The Year, Best Pop Solo Performance, Best Pop Vocal Album, Best Dance Recording, Rock Performance, Best Metal Performance, Best Alternative Music Album, and Best Rap Performance.

Leading the way with multiple nominations from the Independent community were A2IM members 300 Entertainment, Anti, ATO, Big Machine, Concord Music Group, Entertainment One, Motéma Music, Naxos, Smithsonian Folkways, and Thirty Tigers.

Taylor Swift (Big Machine) received seven nominations, including Record of the Year, Album of the year, Song of the Year, Best Pop Solo Performance, Best Pop Duo/Group Performance, Best Pop Vocal Album, and Best Music Video. Elsewhere, Big Machine Label Group also picked up nominations for Best Country Song (Lee Ann Womack), Best American Roots Song (The Mavericks), Best Americana Album (The Mavericks), and Best Compilation Soundtrack for Visual Media (Glen Campbell).

Alabama Shakes (ATO) received five nominations including Album of the Year, Best Rock Performance, Best Rock Song, Best Alternative Music Album, and Best Engineered Album, Non-Classical. Concord Music Group scored 10 nominations including Best Pop Vocal Album (James Taylor), Best Metal Performance (August Burns Red, Ghost), Best Country Solo Performance (Lee Ann Womack), Best Country Song (Lee Ann Womack), Best Jazz Vocal Album (Jamison Ross), Best Latin Jazz Album (Eliane Elias), Best American Roots Performance (Bela Fleck & Abigail Washburn), Best Bluegrass Album (The Steeldrivers), and Best Folk Album (Bela Fleck & Abigail Washburn).

Concord Music Group received 11 nominations. James Taylor received nominations for Best Pop Vocal Album and Best Engineered Album, Non-Classical; Lee Ann Womack scored nominations for Best Country Solo Performance and Best Country Song; August Burns Red and Ghost received nominations for Best Metal Performance; Jamison Ross nabbed a Best Jazz Vocal Album nomination; Eliane Elias secured a Best Latin Jazz Album nomination; Bela Fleck & Abigail Washburn are up for Best American Roots Performance and Best Folk Album; and The Steeldrivers received a nomination in the Best Bluegrass Album category.

300 Entertainment’s breakout hip-hop superstar Fetty Wap scored 2 award nominations for Best Rap Performance and Best Rap Song, while label mates Highly Suspect nabbed Best Rock Song and Best Rock Album noms.

Anti scored four nominations in Best Alternative Music Album (Wilco), Best American Roots Performance (The Milk Carton Kids, Mavis Staples), Best Folk Album (Glen Hansard),

Entertainment One picked up nominations in Best Traditional R&B Performance (Lalah Hathaway) and Best Gospel Album (Karen Clark Sheard, Dorinda Clark-Cole , Jonathan McReynolds).

Smithsonian Folkways received 4 nominations in the following categories: Best Regional Mexican Album (Mariachi Los Camperos De Nati Cano), Best Children’s Album (Jose-Luis Orozco), Best Album Notes (Lead Belly), and Best Historical Album (Fannie Lou Hamer).

Thirty Tigers scored nominations for Best American Roots Song (Jason Isbell), Best Americana Album (Jason Isbell), Best Folk Album (Patty Griffin), Best Regional Roots Album (Jon Cleary).

In the Jazz world, Motéma Music, received 5 nominations for Best Improvised Jazz Solo (Joey Alexander), Best Jazz Vocal Album (Karrin Allyson), Best Jazz Instrumental Album (Joey Alexander), Best Large Jazz Ensemble Album (Arturo O’ Farrill & the Afro Latin Jazz Orchestra), and Best Instrumental Composition (Arturo O’ Farrill & the Afro Latin Jazz Orchestra.

Classical music powerhouse Naxos picked up 4 nominations for Best Orchestral Performance, Best Classical Solo Vocal Album, Best Classical Compendium,

and Best Contemporary Classical Composition.

Other A2IM members receiving nominations: Alligator, BMG, Cantaloupe, Compass, Counter Records, Ghostlight, Mack Avenue, MCG Jazz, Merge, Ondine, Red River Entertainment, Rostrum, Six Degrees, Sub Pop, Ultra, VP Records, Warp, and Young Turks.