ABOUT NI MUSIC PRIZE

Please read carefully - some important updates and new info on process for 2023

WHO ARE THE PREVIOUS WINNERS OF THE PRIZE?

Album of The Year: Cashier No 9, Foy Vance, Robyn G Shiels, Soak, Ciaran Lavery, Joshua Burnside, Ryan Vail & Elma Orkestra, The Wood Burning Savages, Kitt Philippa, Saint Sister, Robocobra Quartet.

Single of The Year: Two Door Cinema Club, Kitt Philippa, Junk Drawer, Arborist, Dea Matrona, Ferna

ATL Contender Award: ROE, Cherym, Sasha Samara, Dea Matrona, The Florentinas.

Live Act of The Year: The Wood Burning Savages, Sister Ghost, New Pagans, Junk Drawer.

Video of The Year: Junk Drawer 2022.

WHAT HAPPENS AFTER MY ENTRY IS SUBMITTED FOR CONSIDERATION?

Once the full list of submissions has been assessed by the NI Music Prize team for eligibility, the list of Singles, Albums and Videos will be released publicly as the ELIGIBLE LIST. This will be the full list of eligible releases that were entered via the submission process or gathered by our team through research.

The Live Act list will not be announced until later when the top 15 acts will be announced as the longlist.

WHAT COMES AFTER THE ELIGIBLE LIST?

Once all eligible albums/singles/videso have been collated, ‘Nominators’ chosen from sectors including music journalism (print and online), radio broadcasters and shows, podcasts, bloggers, programmers, music retail, promoters, live music venues, as well as key influencers from elsewhere in the arts, will be invited to consider the titles from NI Music Prize eligible albums/singles/videos list and to then nominate five albums and three singles/videos each from the list.

When the first stage of nominations are in:

The 35 highest scoring singles will make the Long List and will be published on the NI Music Prize website.

The 30 highest scoring albums will make the Long List and will be published on the NI Music Prize website.

The 25 highest scoring videos will make the Long List and will be published on the NI Music Prize website.

The 15 highest scoring live acts will make the Long List and will be published on the NI Music Prize website.

There will be a public vote when the Long List is announced - the public will have a chance to vote for one album, one single, one video and one live act to be added to the final shortlist. The public will have one week to vote. Details will be released when the confirmed Long List is published.

AND AFTER THAT?

A second round of votes by Nominators from the long list will then return the SHORTLIST, and when the public votes have also been counted one album, one single, one video and one live act will be added to this shortlist which features:

• The twelve albums (one decided through public vote, 11 via our nominators) with the highest score/nominations from the long-list become the ‘shortlist’.

• The six singles (one decided through a public vote, 5 via our nominators) with the highest score/most nominations from the long list becomes the ‘shortlist’.

• The six videos (one decided through a public vote, 5 via our nominators) with the highest score/most nominations from the long list becomes the ‘shortlist’.

• The four Live Acts (one decided through a public vote, 3 via our nominators selected from public submissions) with the highest score/most nominations from the long list becomes the ‘shortlist’.

  These lists will then be considered for the overall prize in the Single, Album, Video and Live Act of the Year categories.

  
  WHEN THE SHORTLISTS HAVE BEEN ANNOUNCED?

The Single of The Year Shortlist will go out to a public vote to decide a winner.

Live Act winner will be selected by our nominator panel and announced on the night of the awards.

The Album of The Year winner will be decided by an industry panel on the night of the awards.

The Video of The Year Shortlist will go out to a public vote to decide a winner.

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION

The Prize shortlist is voted on by the nominators and academy based on their own tastes and determinations. They pick their selections based on their individual criteria for album/single/video/live of the year, following the guidelines/criteria we have provided them with, noted above. We ask them to rank their selections in order of preference. We then allocate a score to each ranking position and add up all the scores to reach our list of shortlisted artists. We invite a broad section of voices and champions of different kinds of music from the list noted above.

The nominators will also be invited to take part in helping decide the shortlist for a BBC ATL emerging artist award. There is no submission process for this category and more details will be announced soon. Once the nominators have submitted their responses, a shortlist of 4 will be drawn up and announced shortly after.

The NI Music Prize is coordinated by the Oh Yeah Music Centre. Neither staff nor board members take part in the nomination process.

The announcements and publications by the NI Music Prize and Oh Yeah Music Centre of the list of artists, which have been shortlisted, and then of winners on the night of the Prize, are final.

Any queries can be sent to emer@nimusicprize.com