Music Producers Guild Awards Explained

With plans for its first ever Awards ceremony now well underway, the UK Music Producers Guild (MPG) has announced changes to its membership categories in order to ensure the integrity of its voting procedures for these and subsequent awards.
The Guild has revealed the introduction of a new 'Voting Member' category, which will guarantee that MPG Award nominations are qualified and short-listed by professional recording practitioners, resident in the UK.
Existing and future MPG members who would like to have an input in the voting process can now apply to become Voting Members.
To qualify, they must be UK residents and fulfil either one of two criteria.
They should have six credits for production, engineering or mixing on commercially released tracks, either on single or multiple CDs, vinyl or cassette albums, EPs and singles, or DVDs and these tracks must have been commercially available via traditional outlets, i.e. record shops or mail order.
Alternatively, they should have 12 credits for production, engineering or mixing on commercially released tracks or two full-length CD releases that are available via digital download from recognised online music retail sites.
"We have introduced this new category because we feel it is vital to the success of our awards that our voting procedures are seen to be fair and transparent," said Mike Howlett, Chairman of MPG.
"The nomination process will be completely open - anyone, including non-MPG members, can nominate themselves or anyone else for a particular award.
"Once we have received all nominations and verified their eligibility, we want to ensure that the short-list of three nominees per category is drawn up by professionals who understand the recording process and are therefore qualified to make accurate and informed decisions," he said.
The three nominees short-listed in each category will then be judged by the MPG's official judging panels, which will be made up of a selection of record industry experts including producers, engineers, artists, artist managers, A&R representatives, music journalists and radio presenters.
"The whole point of our Awards is to celebrate the central role recording professionals play in creating innovative and successful records," Howlett added.
"This is why our final judging panels will reflect the views of the entire music industry."
The MPG Awards are scheduled to take place in London in February 2009. The nomination process will be carried out online, and is expected to open at the beginning of October, 2008.
MPG members who wish to apply for 'Voting Membership' can now do so via the website. The subscription fee for new voting members is £120 per year and £45 for existing full members who wish to upgrade their existing subscription to the new category.
See: www.mpg.org.uk
(BMcC)