Tasman Keith Calls Out ARIA Awards: 'An Outdated Award Platform'

Tasman Keith has taken to Instagram to call out the ARIA Awards.

The call out comes in the light that Tasman Keith's stellar 2022 album A Colour Undone did not meet the voting criteria for Best Hip Hop release or Album Of The Year. 

Keith opens his statement saying, "A Colour Undone does not meet the voting criteria for Best Hip Hop Release or Album Of The Year. The criteria is still structured mainly around a system which upweights physical formats and downloads. Not streams."

He continues, "My validation doesn't come from an outdated award platform held up by priviledged white record executives who's entire purpose is to sell our stories while keeping majority of the profits.

"Im content with no nomination - I was aware of this weeks ago. This isnt ego.

"However, my mission has always been to occupy all of these spaces and in doing so represent for my community."

The fact that @TasmanKeith’s album isn’t in contention for an ARIA nom this year is so disappointing.

— Sose Fuamoli (@Sose_Fuamoli) September 12, 2022

On moving forward he says, "A discussion needs to be had at ARIA and across the entire industry. Artists should have the same opportunity in these moments as those with the big budget. Judge the art, not chart. Especially when the charting criteria is still based on an outdated system.

"Being performative and providing the same playing field for those that suffer the affects of systemic oppression are two different things.

"ARIA needs to evolve. The system isn’t set up for the small town mission kid, it’s set up for the big label white man. And as a First Nations person I shouldn’t need to change the system to simply be acknowledge by it, that’s been the problem with Australia."

The ARIA Awards nomination criteria do indeed require albums to have hit the ARIA chart to be eligible, but the charts do take streaming into account when calculating positions. Keith's album has to date amassed 862,295 streams on Spotify and was not available in a physical format, often a tool used to 'jag' a first week chart for Australian artists. His previous full length releases, album 'Evenings' and EP 'Mission Famous' have streamed 790,969 and 755,090 respectively. Most albums that sell more than 400 units (or 400 streaming equivelant units) in a given week tend to reach the chart threshold, which for local releases is often covered by the physical pre-orders, putting artists who choose not to release on CD or vinyl at a strategic disadvantage. 

Spotify streaming numbers of some other hip hop albums that were eligible for this year's awards include:

Birdz - 3,203,152
Bliss n Eso - 13,662,205
Baker Boy - 20,029,622
Chillinit - 24,205,452
Drapht - 2,072,936

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