As Caro Emerald hits Triple Platinum, over 100 releases by independent artists including Selah Sue, Justice, Tom Waits, Manu Chao, Bonobo and Leaf pick up IMPALA European Sales Awards, with Adele’s 21 reaching an incredible Twenty Five Times Platinum

Brussels 15th June 2012

The latest batch of IMPALA Sales Awards is one of the biggest ever, with 111 registrations from across Europe for new awards from Silver through to multi-Platinum.

Featured European and international artists include Amaral (Spain), Katie Melua (UK), Charlotte Gainsbourg (France), First Aid Kit (Sweden), Quadro Nuevo (Germany), Moda (Italy), Daan (Belgium), Paleface (Finland), Soap&Skin (Austria) and Jack White (USA).

The new awards represent more than 19 million albums sold, with 1 Twenty-Five-Times Platinum (10 million sales), 1 Triple Platinum (1.2 million), 4 Platinum (400k), 9 Diamond (200k), 4 Double Gold (150k), 18 Gold (75k), 26 Double Silver (40k) and 48 Silver (20k) from all across Europe. In total over 900 awards have been registered so far, representing more than 91 million CDs sold and €1.4 billion in revenue.

Listen to IMPALA’s Spotify playlists for each award category here: Silver, Double Silver, Gold, Double Gold, Diamond, Platinum.

About the Awards

The IMPALA Sales Awards are the only pan-European awards devoted to independent artists. They are the first awards to recognise that success on a pan-European basis needs to be acknowledged on different levels. They celebrate the fact that achievement and success begins well before 1 million (the only pan-European sales level officially recognised before IMPALA launched its own scheme).
The IMPALA Sales Awards are an extra tool for independents and their artists to market themselves internationally. IMPALA’s on-line certification system is available at www.impalamusic.org where framed awards can also be ordered.
The awards are part of IMPALA’s wider strategy to create new opportunities to promote independent music, real entrepreneurship and cultural diversity, in the face of increasing concentration.

IMPALA also has two other awards: the European Independent Album of the Year Award and the Outstanding Contribution Award, which are announced annually.

About IMPALA

IMPALA was established in April 2000 to represent independent music companies. 99% of Europe’s music companies are small or medium sized enterprises (SMEs). Known as the “independents”, they are world leaders in terms of innovation and discovering new music and artists – they produce more than 80% of all new releases. The independents also account for 80% of the sector’s jobs.

The potential of the sector is enormous. Key investment, online and market access measures are expected to be put in place at European and national level for the independents and other cultural and creative SMEs – now officially recognised by the EU as “the drivers of growth, job creation and innovation”. Fostering Europe’s economy of culture and diversity is one of Europe’s top priorities in becoming the world’s leading knowledge economy. Culture is a bigger earner than any of chemicals, automobiles or ICT manufacturing and provides more than 3% of Europe’s jobs.

 IMPALA has 4,000 members including the top independents: !K7 (Germany), Beggars Group (UK), Cosmos Music Group (Sweden), CLS Music (Hungary), CNR (NL), Cooking Vinyl (UK), Edel (Germany), Epitaph (US/NL), Everlasting (Spain), Gazell (Sweden), Kobalt (Sweden), Menart (Croatia), Musicvertrieb (Switzerland), [PIAS] Entertainment Group (Benelux, UK and France), Playground (Sweden), Red Bullet (NL), Rough Trade Benelux, Wagram (France), as well as national trade associations from the UK (AIM), France (UPFI), Germany (VUT), Spain (UFI), Italy (PMI), Belgium (BIMA), Denmark (DUP), Netherlands (STOMP), Norway (FONO), Israel (PIL), Indieco (Finland) and Sweden (SOM).

IMPALA has its own award schemes to promote cultural diversity and new talent and highlight the artistic contribution of independent music. IMPALA award winning artists include Efterklang, Adele, Manu Chao, Radiohead, Agnes Obel, Caro Emerald and Sigur Ros.