In an industry not known as short of self-congratulation, the Australian Music Prize being announced today is in one sense yet another award in a crowded calendar of backslapping that has its tragicomic moment in the MTV Australia Awards next week. But the Australian Music Prize is not exactly like the other prizes.
It is the youngest award, for a start. It is the most lucrative award: it offers not just a shiny trophy but this year a cash prize of $30,000. And it arrives at its winner rather differently from the better-known awards.
The Amp is modelled unashamedly on the Mercury Prize, Britain's pre-eminent music award. "I found myself, many years ago, sourcing the CDs of the Mercury's shortlist as I knew that, having made such a list, they were going to be music to my ears," says the Australian prize's founder, Scott Murphy. "Why couldn't we be doing the same for Australian music of excellence?"
The Amp says its principle is quality, not sales, nor genre, fame nor the size of your record company's wallet. Well, they would say that, wouldn't they? Aren't all the awards about quality? Not exactly, or at least not entirely.
The main awards in Australia are the APRA and the ARIA awards. The APRAs (organised by the Australasian Performing Right Association, representing publishers and songwriters) play up their emphasis on the songwriters, as distinct from the ARIAs (organised by the Australian Recording Industry Association, representing the record companies) where performers are the stars.
However, their differences are mostly illusory. Almost all APRA awards are based on airplay. By definition the nominees are commercially successful artists that fit narrow radio formats. The ARIAs have judging panels of artists, media, management and record company employees. Quality is a factor but it is rare to see winners who have not already sold well.
The Amp is more likely to be accused of a different kind of snobbery. Of the winners, the Drones in 2006, Augie March in 2007 and the Mess Hall last year, only the ARIA winners Augie March had much impact on the charts. This year's nine finalists include two acts with substantial sales and seven whose combined sales barely register.
On the other hand, the winners and finalists were prominent on most critics' lists of best albums of their respective years.
The 23 Amp judges include artists, media and retailers but no record company employees or managers. Late last year they reduced the several hundred submitted to a longlist of about 30.
Most of the judges convened in a Sydney boardroom before Christmas to decide on the nine finalists through argument, persuasion and the threat that they would not be allowed to leave until the shortlist was settled.
Today each album will be presented by a judge acting as an advocate for it before discussion and voting. The debates are often willing, if polite, with some albums carried on bloc voting from long-time supporters and others staying on through a convincing argument or lack of strong opposition.
At each stage of voting the lowest-scoring album is eliminated until, two hours later, a winner is left standing or the judges left whimpering. Or both.
Bernard Zuel has been an Australian Music Prize judge for four years and an ARIA Awards judge for 13 years.
(Pic: Cut Copy, Beaches & Ross McLelland)
THE SHORTLIST
The Presets - Apocalypso
Beaches - Beaches
The Drones - Havilah
Cut Copy - In Ghost Colours
C.W. Stoneking - Jungle Blues
Jack Ladder - Love Is Gone
Tom Cooney - Presque Vu
Eddy Current Suppression Ring - Primary Colours
Ross McLennan - Sympathy For The New World