12th Australian Music Prize Opens Submissions & Names Judging Panel

Ask just about anyone with ears and they'll tell you that 2016 has, so far, been a pretty dang incredible year for Australian music, so it makes sense that the team at the annual Australian Music Prize would be wanting to get a jump on sorting through the field ahead of next year's 12th edition of the event.

To that end, organisers have officially opened submissions for the next AMP, due to be announced in March 2017, to all albums released between 1 January and 31 December this year. There are no real obstacles to entry aside from the prerequisite that the artist(s) be Australian, the release be new in 2016, and at least nine tracks, or 33 minutes, long, with a minimum requirement that a track includes at least 20 seconds of music.

The winning album and artist will walk away with $30,000 in prizemoney, courtesy of the Phonographic Performance Company of Australia (PPCA), and join the ranks of previous winners including Courtney Barnett (11th AMP, Sometimes I Sit & Think, & Sometimes I Just Sit), Remi (10th AMP, Raw X Infinity), Big Scary (9th AMP, Not Art), Hermitude (8th AMP, HyperParadise) and more.

They'll just need to get past the judges first — this year's panel includes artists including chairperson Dave Faulkner (Hoodoo Gurus), Al Grigg (Palms) and Phil Jamieson (Grinspoon), media personalities such as Mikey Cahill, The Music's Melbourne editor Bryget Chrisfield, Sosefina Fuamoli, Kate Hennessy, Caitlin Nienaber, Sarah Smith and Bernard Zuel, and retail identities Chris Berkley, Mike Glynn, Shannon Logan and Nate Nott.

The AMP team are super-keen on considering as many eligible albums as possible for March's prizegiving, so to help them out you can head to their Facebook page or drop them a line at info@australianmusicprize.com.au to give them the heads up on any releases that fit the bill and are worthy of a mention by including artist name, album title, release date and, if possible, a link to the album on Spotify.

For more information, see the AMP's website.