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Awards Top Stories
Universal dominate at Music Week Awards
By CMU Editorial | Published on Friday 16 April 2010
So, few of the great and good of the mainstream music industry were tuning into last night’s party leader debate on ITV, though having got their flashy new copyright laws passed in this parliament, the big music firms probably aren’t so concerned about who will occupy 10 Downing Street come the second week in May.
But yes, the mainstream music biz was at the London Hilton last night for the annual Music Week Awards, the gongs dished out to those working behind the scenes in the music industry, and especially the record industry.
I think it’s fair to say it was Universal Music’s night. Not only did their International and soon to be overall top man Lucian Grainge get the outstanding contribution prize, The Strat, but subsidiaries of the world’s biggest music company won five other gongs, including all of the non-indie marketing and PR prizes and the flagship best label prize, the latter for Polydor. By comparison, Sony Music only got one prize, and for the smaller of its main UK labels, while Warner’s only award was for the Atlantic promotions team. EMI got two awards, but both for its publishing company rather than its flagging recordings division.
On the indie side, PIAS took the Sales Team Of The Year prize and Proper the Best Distributor gong, but other indie wins were limited to those categories with ‘independent’ in the name. Though Dizzee Rascal’s business partner Nick Denton did take Best Manager, and he also heads up the rapper’s Dirtee Stank label.
Commenting on this year’s winners, Music Week Editor Paul Williams said this: “I would like personally to congratulate all of the winners of the Music Week Awards 2010. I know personally from the awards the Music Week team oversaw that competition was fierce, but I am confident we have chosen the right winners. 2010 saw a new venue for the Music Week Awards in the shape of The Hilton hotel. Such changes are always a challenge but I am pleased to say it came off. Not only was the event a sell-out success, I think it was one of the best awards in recent years. Thank you to everyone who attended and made the event such a triumphant night”.
And the winners were:
Independent Music Retailer Of The Year: Rise Bristol Ltd
Specialist Music Retail Brand Of The Year: Rough Trade Ltd
Mail-Order Online Retailer Of The Year: Amazon
Non-Specialist Music Retailer Of The Year: Tesco
Distributor Of The Year: Proper Music Distribution
Sales Team Of The Year: PIAS UK
Music Mobile App Of The Year: Spotify
Digital Artist Tool Of The Year: Soundcloud
Consumer-Facing Digital Music Service Of The Year: We7
Producer Of The Year: Paul Epworth
Studio Of The Year: Abbey Road
Regional Radio Station Of The Year: Kiss 100
National Radio Station Of The Year: BBC Radio1
Promotions Team Of The Year: Warner/Atlantic Promotions Team
Live Music Venue Of The Year: The Assembly, Leamington Spa
Festival Of The Year: Creamfields
Live Production Team Of The Year: Capital Sound
Live Promotion Team Of The Year: SJM
Artist Marketing Campaign: Kelly Ridgway, Universal/Polydor (for Lady Gaga)
Catalogue Marketing Campaign: Jon Turner, Universal/Island Records (for Island 50)
Independent Artist Marketing Campaign: Pat Carr & Korda Marshall, Infectious (for Temper Trap)
Independent Breakthrough Campaign: Warp Records (for Grizzly Bear)
PR Campaign Of The Year: Caroline Crick, Universal/Decca Records (for Vera Lynn)
Music And Brand Partnership Of The Year: Splendid Communications for Smirnoff Creative Grants
Music Sync Of The Year: Universal/EMI Publishing/Howling Monkey for T-Mobile ‘Dance’
Independent Publisher Of The Year: Kobalt
Publisher Of The Year: EMI Publishing
Independent Record Company Of The Year: Bella Union
Record Company Of The Year: Universal/Polydor
The A&R Award: Nick Raphael & Jo Charrington, Sony/Epic Records
Manager Of The Year: Nick Denton
The Strat: Lucian Grainge
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CORRECTION 16. April 2010 12:55: EMI have correctly pointed out that they actually won three awards this year, because they own and run the Abbey Road Studios which were named Studio Of The Year. We, of course, knew this, but failed to spot EMI’s third gong in the list due to what is known in the journalism trade as “stupidity”. Sorry.
