Indies Win 50% Of This Year’s Grammy Awards
Independent artists and labels had a banner year at the 2009 Grammy Awards winning 56 of the 110 awards given or just over 50% of the total prizes.
"The continued growth of independent music is underscored by the success of independent artists and labels at this year's Grammy's. Music released by artists on independent labels scored 56 Grammys Sunday night out of a total of 110 awarded including Album of the Year and Record of the Year (Robert Plant & Alison Krauss), Best Alternative Music Album (Radiohead), Best Reggae Album (Burning Spear), Best Comedy Album (George Carlin) and Best Jazz Instrumental Album (Chick Corea & Gary Burton). Last year, independents won 36 awards," stated Jim Mahoney, VP of the American Association of Independent Music (A2IM).
Wow, Bruce, so do you think this lends credence to the notion of the rising musical middle class and democratization of the industry? It’d certainly be nice to see the trend continue.
Some of these numbers come from the indie’s dominance of certain niche categories like jazz, folk and blues, but yes I do believe this is a very hopeful sign.
Bruce, As this musical middle class grows and continues to prosper, do you think labels will take even more drastic actions to retain control? In what ways?
I think this is the best thing that could happen to music. The music world is changing to the point where, if you will, “THE PLAYING FIELD”, is leveling to the music markets benefit. Indie Music, I believe, is leading to more & true creativity in the music industry. In the indie world unless you are creative you will not survive.