Exclusive: The Amp Will Be Free To Enter This Year

This year's Australian Music Prize - commonly known as The Amp - will be free for artists to enter, theMusic.com.au can reveal.

Regarded as the Australian equivalent of the UK's The Mercury Prize, The Amp awards one Australian artist a cash prize for what its judging panel deems as the best Australian album of the year. Last year the prize, donated by the PPCA, was $30,000 and won by The Jezabels.

Today prize director Scott Murphy told theMusic.com.au that there will be a change to the entry system this year in that the Prize will be free to enter. Presumably this will encourage a larger number of entrants across a wider range of genres. Last year's fee was $95.

A full announcement of the new entry process will be announced next week, which will be considerably earlier than the usual October/September entries and could indicate for a longer judging period for the 2012/13 Award.

Judges for The Amp are selected from across the music industry and the process is a regular cause for discussion and debate. Murphy said today that there will be "tweaks" for this year's process as there are every year.

Full list of previous winners:

2005: The Drones - Wait Long By The River And The Bodies of You Enemies Will Float By
2006: Augie March - Moo, You Bloody Choir
2007: The Mess Hall - Devils Elbow
2008: Eddy Current Suppression Ring - Primary Colours
2009: Lisa Mitchell - Wonder
2010: Cloud Control - Bliss Release
2011: The Jezabels - Prisoner