Music Week is thrilled to announce that Proper Music Distribution (PMD) is sponsoring the Label/Artist Services Company category at the Music Week Awards 2026.
The ceremony will return on May 7, 2026 at the JW Marriott Grosvenor House London. Table bookings are now open here.
The Music Week Awards are the UK's only music awards that recognise the whole range of our incredible industry, from labels, publishing and live to A&R, radio, marketing and PR.
“Music Week’s commitment to recognising businesses that are shaping the UK music ecosystem is incredibly important," said Proper MD Drew Hill. "Behind every campaign sits a huge amount of effort – from label teams and distributors, retailers, to pressing plants and the wider network of specialists who bring music to fans. The awards are a valuable moment to acknowledge that collective contribution.
"For independent labels and artists, physical formats remain a cornerstone of their business and Proper is dedicated to supporting them with industry-leading services they can depend on throughout the year. We’re honoured to sponsor the Music Week Awards and to celebrate the achievements that continue to strengthen our thriving community.”
Proper is no stranger to the event, having been awarded Best Sales Team in 2017 and 2020, and Best Distributor in 2009, 2010 and 2012. A leading full services company providing independent solutions to independent labels, including bespoke global physical and digital distribution, artist & label services, publishing, D2C, and press & promotion services, it represents over 700 labels and services companies for physical and digital distribution.
The business handles over a quarter of the UK’s independent physical market, with clients including Absolute Label Services, ADA, Believe, Bella Union, Cherry Red, Concord, Epitaph, FUGA, Heavenly, Hospital, Ingrooves, Kartel, Naxos, RSK, Snapper, SRD and Transgressive.
I'm back doing what I've always loved doing
Drew Hill
Hill, who has been at the helm for nearly two decades, has led PMD into a new era after acquiring the assets of the company with Netherlands-based Artone from administrators last year. The move followed a turbulent few years for Proper after its acquisition by Swiss fintech firm Utopia in 2022.
In the following Q&A, Hill gives his verdict on PMD's fresh start, the health of music retail, and vinyl's new generation...
It's been a year since you brought Proper back from the brink, how's it all gone so far?
"It's gone really well. I can now see how all-encompassing dealing with Utopia had become and it's a real pleasure to have my life back and be able to concentrate on growing the business and serving our customers again, rather than just staying alive. I'm back doing what I've always loved doing."
Why did you want to be involved with the 2026 Music Week Awards?
"I think it's lovely to recognise people across the whole of the music business, not just who's had the biggest album or is the best label, but those unsung heroes as well. I'm very appreciative of Music Week's work and the recognition that we've had in the past – and I'm very pleased if we can be a part of keeping all that going."
You're sponsoring the Label/Artist Services Company award this year, what are your thoughts on the vibrancy of that sector?
"Label and artist services play an increasingly crucial role in today’s complex market. By giving independent creators à-la-carte access to campaign expertise, data and infrastructure, many of today’s biggest superstars are able to compete and grow on their own terms. This flexible, specialist support across formats and routes to market allows artists and labels to stay focused on creativity while building sustainable, long-term careers.”
How would you assess the last 12 months for physical music?
"It's fantastic to see from the BPI figures that it's been another year of growth. I'm on the board at ERA and am chair of the Official Charts Company, and we sit there asking, 'Can the vinyl resurgence keep going?' And I don't mind admitting that around a lot of those tables, people say, 'Maybe this is the year we're going to have to accept that's it.' But no, another year of double-digit growth in vinyl and the feedback from ERA is that shops are buoyant.
"I remember back around 2010, shops were closing and we were losing customers on a weekly basis. Now, maybe not every week, but certainly every month, we're opening accounts with new shops. I'm not saying it's easy to do now, but I think the people out there running shops know what they're doing. They're managing their businesses really well and, with the shift from CD to vinyl, people are getting to sell products at a higher price. I think we've got to be careful not to overprice vinyl and push the consumer too far, but obviously if you're selling things at £30 rather than £12.99, that's got to be better for the shops."
It's lovely to recognise people across the whole of the music business, not just who's had the biggest album or is the best label, but those unsung heroes as well
Drew Hill
The likes of HMV and Rough Trade have also been expanding...
"Labels might be quietly frustrated that when they go through the front door of their local HMV, they're not immediately met by A-Z racks of vinyl. But I think [HMV Retail MD] Phil Halliday and the team have done a really good job of working out who their customer is, and what that customer wants – and it's not just music. They want those collectibles, T-shirts and other bits and pieces that HMV have proved there's a market for. Some people want to hark back to the days of HMV just being floor to ceiling records, but those days have gone. We mustn't forget that HMV was in a pretty bad place until Doug Putman came in and saved it. And now they've kind of reinvented themselves and have become a lot more nimble, but they've still got 120 stores and are back open on Oxford Street, so it's really positive.
"Rough Trade is opening stores abroad and has a really good offering as well. It's difficult being a retailer on any High Street when it comes to business rates, energy costs and all that economic headwinds. The government should definitely look at ways to support anyone running a shop, it isn't just a music retail thing."
So what's your outlook for the year ahead?
"I think we will continue to see growth in vinyl. I'm not going to suggest the pace is going to pick up – we might see that growth stagnate a little bit – but I think there will still be growth in 2026. I also think we'll continue to see a small decline in CDs.
"We've got to continue to look at the music consumer as someone who wants to discover music through digital channels. Whether they're discovering music on TikTok, YouTube or Spotify, what we're seeing is when someone finds an artist they're really into – and want to delve deeper and show their allegiance to that artist – that's when they come into buying physical, and I think that that is only going to continue. We'll still see digital being that kind of mass market consumption of music, and physical being the way that people demonstrate their real commitment to the people they love."
To what extent are young people getting on board with vinyl?
"The numbers speak for themselves. I think the biggest two selling albums in the year before last were Taylor Swift and Harry Styles. I'm pretty sure it's not 50-something-year-old blokes buying those. There may be some, but not on the whole. Younger people are buying vinyl – you can see it in the chart every week that, whoever's hitting No.1, a large part of it is physical sales. A lot of labels have become very good at putting together release campaigns to maximise those for chart positions. And if you talk to record shops, they'll tell you the people coming through the door represent a real cross-section of society."
I think we will continue to see growth in vinyl
Drew Hill
Separately, Proper recently signed D2C deals with Hospital Records and Heavenly Recordings, which would suggest you're not just relying on music retail?
"The main thing we're seeing – and you can see this from the majors all the way down to the smallest indie label – is that people want to have a better connection with the fan. And more and more people are looking to direct to consumer as a way to solidify that relationship. We've realised that if we're holding all of the label stock in our warehouse, it doesn't really matter to Proper whether we're shipping that stock to an Amazon warehouse, an HMV store, an indie retailer on a High Street, or directly to the consumer. We're pretty platform-agnostic: whether you're using our sister company Townsend Music, whether you're using Bandcamp, or whether you build something in Shopify, we can do the fulfilment for you. So things are going through fewers pairs of hands. It's quicker, it's more environmentally friendly, it's cheaper... Overall, it's a more efficient process. Ultimately, it's about making sure that we keep fans engaged, and if fans want to buy directly from the artist or directly from the label, then I don't think it's Proper's place to do anything other than facilitate that."
What are your plans in the digital distribution space?
"Obviously, we're predominantly known as a physical distributor, but we've been in digital distribution for 15 years, maybe longer. We're now with Fuga, but we look after about 600 labels digitally and I think where we're slightly different to some of the bigger services is that we can offer a bit more of a white glove, bespoke service We've had labels coming to us saying that through other distributors – where they're maybe a much smaller fish in a massive pond – they're finding they can't get that music delivered to DSPs because it's getting automatically rejected as being AI-generated content. Whereas at Proper, we're dealing with real human beings and have relationships with DSPs, and we're able to almost guarantee we'll hold their hand all the way through this process to make sure their music gets delivered.
"Hopefully we can grow our digital business. There are a lot of labels that want a one-stop shop where they can put physical and digital together, and that's definitely something we want to offer."
Finally, is there a message you'd like to share with the music business?
"The main message is that we're on stable ground, are here for the long term and are open for business. With being part of Artone, the message this year will also be about highlighting the other stuff that we can do within the group. We've got a vinyl pressing plant. We've got physical distribution on the continent with Bertus. We can do D2C with Townsend. So it's about making sure that we're cross selling all those other ancillary services from within the group."
