The Amp Opens Entries For 2012

Entriesfor this year's Australian Music Prize - The Amp - are now open and as theMusic.com.au revealed last week, this year's competition will be free to enter.

Today's official announcement has confirmed the news and outlined the $30,000 prize's partnership with D-Star Digital, an online music delivery platform. The new sponsorship deal will allow artists to submit albums digitally.

The Amp aims to recognise the best Australian album of the year with the recipient of the $30,000 prize, donated by the PPCA, judged by a team of industry professionals and stakeholders.

Peter Skillman, Director of D-Star's parent The Shooting STar Picture Company said today, "Shooting Star has always been a great supporter of Australian music. Our exclusive arrangement with AIR and all the major Australian label distributors for the delivery of audio tracks via our DMDS audio system, is testament to our commitment. We are absolutely thrilled to have D-Star's DMDS audio system as the delivery mechanism for The 8th Amp. We look forward to expanding our role in the future.”

By abolishing the $55 entry fee this year The Amp are encouraging not just artists and their label/management teams to enter, but anyone who believes an album is worth consideration.

To upload the album through D-Star's DMDS digital delivery platform, log-in and upload the album, choosing The 8th Amp as the destination. To do this type 'organisations' and then select '8th Amp'. If this process means nothing to you, familiarise yourself with their website.

Otherwise you can send a single physical copy of the record to: The 8th Amp/DMDS; 60 Upper Deck, Jones Bay Wharf; Pirrama Road; Pyrmont NSW 2009.

You will be notified if the album makes the judges' longlist.

The full entry criteria are below:

Australian:
• You are only valid as an entrant if you are Australian. For the purposes of The 8th Australian Music Prize, we define Australian as:
• being an Australian citizen / passport holder
OR
• currently residing in Australia and have been since at least January 1st, 2011
• NOTE: If the entrant is a group of artists, 50 per cent or more of the members of such group must be Australian as per above.

Type of Entrants / Entry:
• Entrants may be individual artists or groups of artists.
• The style or genre of the music comprising the entry is NOT relevant.
• The album entered must contain either a minimum of 33 minutes 20 seconds of recorded music (with any number of tracks), or it must contain a minimum of 9 separate tracks AND a minimum of 25 minutes of music. The maximum amount of music is what can fit onto 2 standard audio compact discs.
• There are no limits to the number of tracks on the entry.
• The entry must NOT be a 'Various Artists' or compilation release.

Entry Release Conditions:
• Each entry must have been commercially released (made available for purchase by the public of Australia) in Australia.
• Commercially released includes sales through any type of retail outlet(s), sales at performances, sales via online retailers – so long as a portion of the Australian public was able to purchase the entry.
• Each entry must have been commercially released in Australia for a minimum of 1 calendar month during the period from 30th Nov 2011 to 30th Nov 2012.
• Each entry must NOT have been commercially released in any way or in any part of the world prior to 30th Nov 2011.
• Each entry must have been first commercially released no later than 30th Nov 2012.
• The entry must not have been entered in any prior prize conducted by The Australian Music Prize.

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