2017 Gold Coast Music Awards Open Nominations

Following the news late last year that the 2017 Gold Coast Music Awards would be moving to Surfers Paradise beach, organisers for the annual competition have opened nominations for this year's event.

The impending GCMA ceremony will feature a new category — Album of the Year — alongside Artist, Breakout Artist (formerly Emerging Artist), Song, Video, Live Music Venue and Live Music Event of the year, taking its total to seven in 2017.

According to co-founder and director Samantha Morris, the new inclusion came about as the result of community involvement and feedback.

"We pulled together local music industry leaders to advise us about categories, judging and the nomination process," Morris said in a statement.

"They recommended we add Album of The Year, remove one of the old categories and rename Emerging Artist to Breakout Artist of the Year to reflect new judging criteria."

The judges themselves are an independent panel comprising notable individuals from across the music industry and associated fields, with this year's gatekeepers including Woodford Folk Festival's Chloe Goodyear, Footstomp Music's Graham Ashton, live music photographer Gina Martin, Bleach* Festival's Julia Bridger, Australian Music Week's Ryan Van Gennip and more.

Being one of the artists selected for an award by the esteemed panel is nothing to sneeze at, either; according to Saia Hanlon, of 2015 Emerging Artist Of The Year winners Hanlon Brothers, winning a Gold Coast Music Award is a milestone achievement that is still impacting their career today.

"After so many years of hard work to build a local following, the Awards really helped open doors locally and further afield," Hanlon said in a statement.

"These Awards are all about recognising and rewarding local talent and 2016 was a big year for Gold Coast music. I can't wait to see who takes out each category this year."

Nominations close on 10 March, with finalists set to be announced at the end of that month.

Get your nomination in at the GCMA website.

The Gold Coast Music Awards will be held in Surfers Paradise on Thursday 27 April as the opening event of this year's Surfers Paradise LIVE festival. Category sponsors this year include Griffith University Qld Conservatorium, NightQuarter, QT Hotel, ALH and TAFE Qld Gold Coast.

Tickets are on sale 1 February. See the event's website for more information.

2017 GCMA Judges

• Chloe Goodyear (Woodford Folk Festival)
• Gina Martin (live music photographer)
• Hannah Morrison (Griffith University Queensland Conservatorium SEED program)
• Julia Bridger (Bleach* Festival)
• Lucy Fisher (Gold Coast Film Festival)
• Cindy Jensen (Buskers by the Creek)
• Mark Duckworth (Blues on Broadbeach)
• Guy Cooper (Serotonin Productions)
• Trevor Jackson (music journalist)
• Ryan Van Gennip (Australian Music Week)
• Graham Ashton (Footstomp)