South Africa Music Awards
The 14th Annual MTN SA Music Awards will take place in May 2008 and will open for entries on 29 October 2007 and close on 30 November 2007.
With the exception of a handful of categories, product released between 1 December 2006 and 30 November 2007 will be eligible for entry into 2008’s edition of the awards. Those categories where the release date of the album is not considered are Best Selling Album, the Lifetime Achievement Award, Best Music Video and Record of the Year. The proprietary online entry system for record companies will once again be used for the submission of entries. Entry forms must be completed and submitted online at www.samusicawards.co.za.
Alternatively, RiSA staff have set up a helpdesk at their premises to assist anyone who cannot make use of the online entry system. RiSA’s offices are located at Unit 4, 150 Hendrik Verwoerd Drive, Randburg.
All material being submitted for consideration must reach RiSA by no later than 30 November 2007 for entries to be eligible for the Awards, which are scheduled to take place in early May 2008.
Where eligibility requirements are concerned, entry is open to any qualifying recording artist, director, producer or engineer — the qualifying factor being someone who has been a legal resident in South Africa, Lesotho, Swaziland, or Botswana for a minimum of six (6) months on the date of entry or is a South African citizen.
For duos or groups, the rules stipulate that not less than 50 percent of the duo or group needs to fall into this citizenship requirement stated above. In addition, unless stated otherwise, collaborations/productions between qualifying artists and international artists are allowed, provided the South African qualifying artists’ participation is given star, or equal, billing.
Rules guiding entry submissions are also available for downloading from the MTN SAMA website.
This year there are 62 categories, with enhancements to existing categories and brand new categories coming from an ongoing desire to reflect the diversity, the dynamism, and the talent that exists in the South African music industry!
Of the 62 categories, ten are not open for entry from 29 October to 30 November.
These are the Record of the Year, a pubic vote category that employs radio airplay as the mechanism for determining the nominees; Best Selling Album and the newly inaugurated Best Selling DVD and Best Selling Music Download of the Year which open for entry after the close of entries in all other categories owing to their extended qualifying dates, but use a different set of criteria that involve an audit as explained in the rules covering the categories; and Lifetime Achievement Award which is bestowed on recipients nominated by the RiSA Executive Committee.
The advent of DVD and music downloads will be celebrated by introducing a vastly increased platform of recognition for DVD — the number of categories has increased at the 14th Annual MTN SA Music Awards to six from previously only having had one category at the 13th Annual MTN SA Music Awards events; and the first time introduction of the awards for music download performance in Best Selling Music Download, a category that has three separate sub-categories namely: Best Selling Ring-Tune, Best Selling Full-Track and Best Selling Video.
The remaining five categories form part of the SAMA ‘Top Five’ categories that came into being at this year’s event — Best Female Album, Best Male Album, Best Album by a Duo or Group, Best Newcomer Album and Album of the Year.
For the Top Five, record companies cannot directly enter product into the Best Female Album, Best Male Album, Best Album by a Duo or Group and Best Newcomer Album categories. These four categories, with the important addition of Album of the Year, now form the SA Music Awards Top Five group. To be eligible for entry into the Big Five categories, the album would have to be nominated within its genre category.
The process enters its second year at the 14th Annual MTN SA Music. The Big Five judging system draws on the knowledge and expertise of the entire judging panel, and employs a rigorous series of judging procedures to ensure that the ultimate results for the Big Five categories represent the music industry’s finest.
[Via IAfrica ]
