The APRA Music Awards is a treasured annual event that honours and celebrates Australian songwriters, their songs, their publishers and all those who support the songwriting community.
Each year, a total of eighteen awards are presented using three distinct selection processes– ‘Most Performed’, ‘Peer Voted’ and ‘Board Selected’.
In this article, we will explore those award categories and the processes that apply to each.
Let’s begin with the award categories that are purely based on numbers. There are twelve ‘Most Performed’ awards:
Winners of each ‘Most Performed’ award are determined through statistical analysis of performance activity, as reflected by the royalties collected and paid by APRA to music creators when their music is played locally.
For all ‘Most Performed’ awards (other than Most Performed Australian Work Overseas – see below), our data team calculates this activity by collecting data from licensee reports, performance reports and, in some cases, music recognition technology. The winners in the ‘Most Performed’ award categories are determined by performance activity across various areas where music is used and played during the eligible period.
Radio: commercial, community, government and digital
TV: free to air, subscription and government broadcasters
Streaming, download, User Generated Content services and, short-form video and video-on-demand services
Reports collected from Promoted concerts, festivals, and live streamed events and live performance reports submitted by APRA members
Background music suppliers and music recognition technology that reports on music usage at pubs, clubs, restaurants and retail businesses
For the Most Performed Australian Work Overseas award, the winner is determined by analysing reports of performance activity in overseas territories across broadcast, digital, live and public performance (as provided to APRA by our international affiliate Performing Right Organisations).
The winners of the ‘Most Performed’ categories reflect what is programmed, curated, promoted, consumed and played in Australia (or overseas in the case of the Most Performed Australian Work Overseas award). The performance data used to assess the ‘Most Performed’ award categories reflect a song’s earning success over the eligible period and recognises the song and its writer(s) on that metric of achievement.
As an organisation that manages music rights, we take our role seriously as the primary custodian of extensive data on music performances.
APRA acknowledges that the results of this statistical analysis may reflect inherent structural biases in performance activity and opportunities available to artists, which, in turn, impacts who can be recognised through awards in the ‘Most Performed’ categories.
Given this genre’s close-knit community, this category is unique as nominees for Most Performed Blues & Roots works are determined by seeking nomination submissions from Australian APRA members. This approach allows for a broader selection of works to be nominated.
From those Most Performed Blues & Roots Work nominees, the same statistical analysis of performance activity is used to determine the winner in the same way it is determined for all other ‘Most Performed’ award categories.
To ensure genre and performance reliability, any work nominated for any ‘Most Performed’ award category is cross-referenced against Apple Music genre classifications and a range of Australian music charts for the relevant period, including genre-specific music charts as relevant for each category which may include the ARIA, AIR, Shazam, National Indigenous Music and Country music charts.
‘Song of the Year’ is a one-of-a-kind award with its own FAQ.
Each year, thousands of APRA members vote for the ‘Song of the Year’, with a shortlist of the top twenty (20) narrowed down to the top five (5) and the winner announced at the APRA Music Awards. To vote for the ‘Song of the Year’, you need to be an APRA member currently living in Australia or an APRA member living overseas with Australian citizenship.
The Song of the Year follows the same eligibility criteria regarding release dates and APRA writer share as the ‘Most Performed’ categories set out above. The secure online ballot in the Writer Portal lists over 500 eligible songs, but there is also a free text field to enable a member to vote for any eligible song that may not be on the list.
Guided by an external Judging Panel, each year the APRA Board of Directors determines the winners of the following awards:
The Emerging Songwriter of the Year, Songwriter of the Year, Ted Albert Award for Outstanding Services to Australian Music and International Recognition awards acknowledge the songwriter or group of songwriters who achieved a standout body of work in the previous year as reflected by single and album releases, charts, awards, honours, critical reception and tours and appearances; and the Judging Panel's assessment that the recipient has, in the past year, released songs of outstanding quality.
The Judging Panel is independent from the APRA Board and is comprised of a mix of past winners, contemporary songwriters and producers, and APRA Ambassadors. The Judging Panel is tasked with considering a long list of potential recipients which is then presented to the Awards Committee of the APRA Board for their final decision.
It is expected that the external Judging Panel’s results will serve as a firm guide for the decision-making process. Though at times the Awards Committee might agree to overrule the Judging Panel’s findings, it is done so in accordance with the conflict-of-interest policy that governs the APRA Board.