The Libera Awards are an annual awards ceremony organized by the American Association of Independent Music (A2IM). First hosted in 2012, the awards celebrate the independent music community. The capstone of A2IM's Indie Week, an annual music business conference, the ceremony has been able to be viewed by the public since 2020.
The top-billed awards are generally Record of the Year and Best Live Act, in addition to Label of the Year, Best Sync Usage, and Video of the Year, among others. In addition to the awards which are voted on, A2IM annually confers the Lifetime Achievement and Independent Icon Awards to industry leaders and artists, respectively.
List of ceremonies +Overview of Libera Awards ceremoniesYearDateVenueBroadcastHost2012June 21Le Poisson Rouge rowspan="8" John Ross Bowie2013June 20Highline Ballroom2014June 202015June 252016June 16Manhattan CenterTed Leo2017June 8PlayStation Theater2018June 21Kate Wolff2019June 20Ziegfeld TheatreChris Gethard2020June 18YouTube2021June 172022 June 16Webster Hall 2023 June 15 Town Hall Hannibal Buress2024 June 10 Gotham Hall 2025 June 9 Delisa Shannon2026 June 8
Award categories Note: the names of most categories have been tweaked overtime with the most significant name changes indicated below. Updated 2022.
Artist-specific awards
Best Live Act (2013–2014, 2016–) A2IM Humanitarian Award (2021–) Best Breakthrough Artist (2012–) (2012–2014: Up & Comer Award)
Former categories
Road Warrior of the Year (2012–2016) (2013–2015: Hardest Working Artist; 2016: Into the Pit Award)
Record-specific awards
Record of the Year (2012–) Self-Released Record of the Year (2022–) A2IM Artist Record of the Year Award (2021–) (honors self-released artists) Best Alternative Rock Record (2020–) Best American Roots Record (2018–) Best Blues Record (2018–) Best Classical Record (2018–) Best Country Record (2018–) Best Dance Record (2022–) Best Electronic Record (2022–) Best Folk Record (2020–) (2020–2022: Best Folk/Bluegrass Record) Best Heavy Record (2018, 2020–2021: Best Metal Record) Best Hip-Hop/Rap Record (2017–) Best Jazz Record (2018–) Best Latin Record (2018–) Best Outlier Record (2018–) Best Pop Record (2022–) Best Punk Record (2020–) (2020: Best Punk/Emo Album) Best R&B Record (2018–) Best Re-Issue (2018–) Best Rock Record (2018–) (2020: Best Mainstream Rock Album) Best Singer-Songwriter Record (2023–) Best Soul/Funk Record (2023–) Best Spiritual Record (2021–) Best Global Record (2018–) (2018–2022: Best World Record)
Former categories
Groundbreaking Album of the Year (2015–2016) Heritage Album of the Year (2015–2016) Shifting Beats Award (2016) Best Blues/Jazz/R&B Album (2017) Best Classical/World Album (2017) Best Country/Americana/Folk Album (2017) Best Dance/Electronic Record (2017–2021) Best Metal/Hard Rock Album (2017) Best Indie Rock Album (2017)
Industry awards
Best Sync Usage (2012–) Video of the Year (2012–) Best Short-Form Video (2023–) Marketing Genius (2012–) (2012–2014: Light Bulb Award) Creative Packaging (2012–) Best Remix (2023–) Independent Champion (2012–) (2012–2013: 21st Century Award; 2014: Independent Ally of the Year; 2015: Marketplace Ally) Label of the Year (Small) (2012–) Label of the Year (Medium) (2019–) (2012–2018: combined into Indie Label (6 employees or more)) Label of the Year (Big) (2019–) (2012–2018: combined into Indie Label (6 employees or more))
Former categories
Music Supervisor (2012–2014) A&R Team of the Year (2016) Video of the Year (Fan Vote) (2017)
Special awards A2IM Lifetime Achievement Award This award was first presented at the inaugural Libera Awards to honor contributions by industry leaders in independent music.
2012: Martin Mills, founder of Beggars Group 2013: Tom Silverman, founder of Tommy Boy Records 2014: Bruce Iglauer, founder of Alligator Records 2015: Patricia Chin and the Chin family, founder/founding family of VP Records 2016: Mike Curb, founder of Curb Records 2017: Ani DiFranco, artist and founder of Righteous Babe Records 2018: Brett Gurewitz, founder of Epitaph Records and co-founder of Anti- 2019: Jonathan Poneman, co-founder of Sub Pop 2020: Seymour Stein, co-founder of Sire Records 2021: TBD
Independent Icon Award This award was first presented at the 2016 Libera Awards to honor a "groundbreaking Independent artists who have contributed to the Independent community and have paved the way for future Independents to succeed on their own terms." In 2015, it was presented as the Appleseed Award.
2015: Alison Wenham (Worldwide Independent Network) 2016: Naughty By Nature 2017: Nick Lowe 2018: Funky 4 + 1 2019: NPR (combined with Independent Champion Award) 2020: John Prine, Alejandro Escovedo & Suzanne Ciani 2021: Mavis Staples
Independent Impact Award Formally titled the A2IM Independent Impact Award (as of 2021) this award honors the independent artist with the highest combined sales and streams as measured by Nielsen Music across all of the artist's commercial releases in the U.S. between a yearlong period.
2017: Florida Georgia Line – Dig Your Roots (Big Machine Label Group) 2018: Taylor Swift – Reputation (Big Machine Label Group) 2019: Was not awarded 2020: Was not awarded 2021: TBD
References
External links
A2IM Indie Week