Libera Awards


The Libera Awards are an annual awards ceremony organized by the American Association of Independent Music. 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.
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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

Former categories

Record-specific awards

Former categories

Industry awards

Former categories

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.

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.

Independent Impact Award

Formally titled the A2IM Independent Impact Award 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.