APRA Whittle PDAs Down To Top 200

The first round of cuts have been made in the selection of the winners of this year's APRA Professional Development Awards with the Top 200 entrants selected and announced today.

There is a wide variety of songwriters represented in the Top 200 (which you can check out here), with everyone from Matt Corby to Dewayne Everettsmith to Courtney Barnett to Jay Laga'aia to Darren Hanlon to members of Hungry Kids of Hungary, Straight Arrows, Busby Marou, Velociraptor and many more.

The $240,000 pool grants $30,000 each in prizes to eight individual songwriters, receiving cash, airfares, publicity packages, mentoring opportunities, distro deals and instruments to name but a few of the benefits.

Recent recipients have included the likes of Abbe May, Laura Jean and some guy called Gotye. We spoke to them about the benefits of the prize here.

dewayne everettsmith