Association Of Independent Music (AIM) CEO Gee Davy has praised the indie sector's new breed ahead of this month's 15th edition of the Independent Music Awards.
Ezra Collective and Fontaines DC each have three nominations for the Independent Music Awards, which take place on September 23 at London's Roundhouse. Fcukers, Hope Tala, Anaiis, Wet Leg, Wunderhorse, Bon Iver and Maverick Sabre all have two each.
In terms of labels, XL Recordings, Domino and Transgressive have the most nominations with five each. Meanwhile, 5dB, Because, Believe, Clasico Records, Cooking Vinyl, Communion, FAMM, Ninja Tune, Partisan, Submarine Cat Records, XL and Young all have multiple nods.
“There are a lot of newcomers, not just in terms of artists, but in terms of the label businesses coming up through the ranks,” said Davy, speaking in the October issue of Music Week.
Independent acts such as Wet Leg, The K’s, Those Damn Crows and Pulp have all secured No.1 albums in recent months, but Davy is reluctant to draw any firm conclusions at this point.
"This year, the interesting thing for me is that there’s a spread of labels that we’ve never had come through to the nominee lists for the Independent Music Awards before," she said. "That’s great but without a little bit more data, it’s hard to tell whether that’s a real emergence or just the bigger ones having a bit of a squeeze and more of a tumultuous time.
"What I’d say is, it’s probably a relatively healthy market right now, but I certainly don’t want to do anything to tip it, particularly when I’m seeing the other data coming through about a general decline in growth. That’s one of the reasons why I’ve been so outspoken since I stepped in, to try and push the government to give tax relief to independent labels.”
The UK needs to step up and really support the music industry in a way that’s more sustainable
Gee Davy
Davy described progress on the issue as "complicated", adding that government support in the UK "tends to be very project-focused" and pointed to support that other countries had offered their creative industries.
"If we had a tax-relief scheme more similar to the French model, that would underpin a music creation vehicle," she said. "What they have, effectively, is a tax relief for when music is recorded. That’s the pivotal moment when intellectual property is created. By supporting that element, which is funded by the music businesses primarily, they’re then able to either make that money go further, and make an even better project, or use their resources in a more widespread way to pay more for tour support or marketing. We desperately need that and we have needed it for a number of years.
"It’s getting quite stark, particularly with how the UK’s dropping off in growth compared with other nations. The UK needs to step up and really support the music industry in a way that’s more sustainable."
Davy, who is approaching the first anniversary of her appointment as AIM chief executive, said the external challenges in the role had been "pretty brutal" so far.
"The global markets have all taken a hit," she said. "Some are recovering faster than the UK from the effects of Covid and Brexit, but it’s changed how people respond to music. It’s changed gig-going and how many people are attending gigs and festivals. And that’s partly through, if you like, those teenagers who came through Covid and didn’t come through their teenage years as gig-goers.
"That doesn’t affect the recorded side of the market as much as live, but wherever artists’ revenues are squeezed, they look to the other areas to try and fill those gaps. That’s a real challenge for independent record labels and distributors who, as small businesses, have their own financial challenges. These are partly challenges for members, but there are also challenges for AIM, because we want to be responding to all of those things.”
I’ve certainly seen over time that independents take risks, they’re early adopters and innovate more
Gee Davy
The long-serving AIM executive also sought to debunk some of the misconceptions about independent music, highlighting the breakthrough of Fontaines DC.
"Independents were just seen as bedroom hobbyists, not very professional or organised, only able to really support someone emerging on their first or second album and not able to find global success," she said. "That’s been absolutely blown out of the water. Look at Fontaines DC, or Adele back in the day, or Arlo Parks, these are huge global names that have all come through the independent space. A lot of them are staying in this space because they believe in it.”
Davy also pondered whether the indie sector had a different take on AI to the majors, saying "the devil is in the detail".
“For independents, it’s very hard to get the leverage for negotiation," she said. "The partnership model is very different from the corporate structure. So as a result, independents will likely need different terms. They’ll need equity, not just equality."
She added: "What was interesting is a member survey that we ran under my predecessor three years ago to look at how AI was being used in the sector. It was so widespread already at that point, and this was really where LLM [large language models] suddenly emerged into the public space in a really big way.
"I’ve certainly seen over time that independents take risks, they’re early adopters and innovate more. While being concerned about potential consequences, you’ve got to take those risks to keep up.”
On a personal level, Davy said she was "really excited" about AI, but harboured concerns that a mechanism was not yet in place to "make sure where AI is used in music that it’s properly paid for".
"This is especially relevant where it’s generative music rather than assistive tools, so that the generative music that’s put out doesn’t do things like exacerbate piracy and streaming fraud and train a generation of people to dissociate from the humanity of music," she said. "All of those big philosophical and existential issues need to be addressed at the same time as latching onto something that’s really exciting. It’s difficult to have those nuanced conversations at the moment.”
The full Music Week Interview with Davy appears in our October edition.
PHOTO: Louise Haywood-Schiefer
