A2IM Announces Performances For 2019 Libera Awards and Lifetime Achievement Award Recipient

A2IM is thrilled to announce the first three performers confirmed to grace the stage at the 2019 Libera Awards (presented by SoundExchange) Sunflower Bean, Jean-Michel Blais and Deva Mahala are among those who will perform at the awards. With more artists and the host to be announced shortly, this year's Libera Awards are expected to be an exciting night of music and mingling.

Each year, the American Association of Independent Music (A2IM) hosts the Libera Awards, a platform for artists, record labels, and visionaries within the independent music community to celebrate the hard work and achievements of their peers. At the 2019 Libera Awards (presented by SoundExchange), A2IM is proud to honor Jonathan Poneman, co-founder of Sub Pop Records, with a Lifetime Achievement Award.

"I want to thank A21M and Libera Awards for this great honor," said Poneman. "It's kind of like having a bar mitzvah without having to memorize anything," Jonathan said in a recent interview with Variety.

"Jonathan Poneman was critical in the evolution of the company, the establishment of grunge, and the development of the Seattle sound. From Sub Pop's beginnings as a fledgling, Seattle-based independent record label through its growth into one of the most influential recorded music companies of all time, what Jonathan did at Sub Pop changed the direction of rock music, and his relentless commitment to authenticity re-affirmed the necessity of independent labels," said A2IM President and CEO, Dr. Richard James Burgess. "A2IM is proud to recognize Jonathan's many years of hard work with the Lifetime Achievement Award."

About The Performers:

Deva Mahal has been described as many things: a soul singer as well as a master of blues and R&B, but her style transcends genres and ranges through all of the above with explorations into indie-pop, rock, and gospel. She released her first album, Run Deep, in 2018, to great critical acclaim. The daughter of blues legend Taj Mahal and Inshirah Mahal, she co-wrote "Never Let You Go" with her father for his Grammy-nominated album Maestro in 2008. Deva has also collaborated with artists ranging from Sharon Jones and the Dap Kings to Fat Freddy's Drop and TV on the Radio. Her latest single "Goddamn", a collaboration with Son Little, will be released on May 16th.

Formed in NYC in late 2013, Sunflower Bean topped the UK's Top 40 Album Charts (#39) and Billboard's Independent Album Charts (#16) with their 2018 album, Twentytwo in Blue. Comprised of singer/guitarist Nick Kivlen, singer/bassist Julia Cumming, and drummer Jacob Faber, the band has taken their signature style of retro-tinged rock all over the world. They opened for DIIV, The Vaccines, and Best Coast, supported the Pixies and Wolf Alice, and toured the UK, Europe, Japan, and China. In early 2019, Sunflower Bean released King of the Dudes, an EP which features BBC1's Hottest Record in the World (and the band's first single to chart in the US), "Come For Me."

Pianist Jean-Michel Blais is known for his neoclassical compositions, interweaving jaw-dropping technical skills with subtle synthetic details to build rich, textured music that has been met with wild praise from critics and audiences worldwide. His 2016 debut album, Il, named one of the best albums of the year byTIME Magazine, amassed over 50 million streams introducing the world to his singular talent. In 2017, Blais collaborated with Grammy-nominated producer CFCF for a performance at the Red Bull Music Academy; later that year, the two partnered to create the collaborative EP Cascades. In 2018, Blais' sophomore album, Dans ma main, was shortlisted for the 2018 Polaris Music Prize. Blais will make his film debut at Festival de Cannes in 2019 providing the score to celebrated filmmaker Xavier Dolan's new film Matthias & Maxime.

This year's Libera Awards will take place on June 20th at the prestigious Ziegfeld Ballroom (141 West 54th St.) in NYC. Originally slated for the PlayStation Theater in Times Square, the Awards were moved after a surge in demand for tickets.

The Libera Awards are the culmination of A2IM's Indie Week, the annual four-day gathering of the independent music industry's most incisive minds and dynamic leaders. The conference is a chance for those in the industry to network with others, attend panels and workshops hosted by experts in the independent music world, and discover and discuss current happenings in industry technology and news. Indie Week 2019 will take place in support of New York's Music Month, an annual celebration of the world's highest grossing music city, the thriving and diverse NYC music ecosystem.

For tickets and more information about the Libera Awards presented by SoundExchange, please visitwww.liberaawards.stayindie.net.

To learn more about A2IM, visitwww.a2im.org.

About A2IM:

A2IM is a 501(c)(6) not-for-profit trade organization headquartered in New York City that exists to support and strengthen the independent recorded music sector. Membership currently includes a broad coalition of more than 600 Independently-owned American music labels. A2IM represents these independently owned small and medium-sized enterprises' (SMEs) interests in the marketplace, in the media, on Capitol Hill, and as part of the global music community. In doing so, it supports a key segment of America's creative class that represents America's diverse musical cultural heritage. Billboard Magazine identified the Independent music label sector as 37.32 percent of the music industry's U.S. recorded music sales market in 2016 based on copyright ownership, making Independent labels collectively the largest music industry sector.

The organization's board of directors consists of the following: Laura Ballance - Merge Records, Glen Barros - Concord, Glenn Dicker - YepRoc/Redeye, Kris Gillespie - Domino Recording Co., Andrew Kautz - Big Machine Label Group, Tony Kiewel - Sub Pop Records, Rosie Lopez - Tommy Boy, Louis Posen - Hopeless Records, Thaddeus Rudd - Mom & Pop, Portia Sabin - Kill Rock Stars, and Victor Zaraya - R&T Industries.