Caldas Takes IMPALA Award

Merlin chief exec Charles Caldas has won this year’s IMPALA Outstanding Contribution Award for his work promoting the European independent music sector.

The Outstanding Contribution Award is one of two new annual awards launched by IMPALA in 2011, to showcase European independent music and those who drive it.

The citation credits Caldas for turning the indies into “the fourth major” with a collective repertoire that represents 10 percent of the global music market.

Merlin now looks after the digital interests of more than 14,000 independent record labels and distributors, representing artists including Tom Waits, Wilco, Nick Cave And The Bad Seeds, Arctic Monkeys, Prodigy, Arcade Fire, Armin van Buuren, Marilyn Manson, and Hercules & Love Affair.

IMPALA executive chair Helen Smith said: “Before 2008, it was all too common for digital services to consider independent music as something of an afterthought. Not any more.

“Charles’ tireless work with Merlin has put our sector firmly on the digital map and helped ensure that the enormous value of our members’ repertoire is recognised by those in the technology sector and wider music industry.”

She said it’s now difficult to imagine a world without Merlin.