Australian Music Prize

The Australian Music Prize (the AMP) is an annual award of $30,000 given to an Australian band or solo artist in recognition of the merit of an album released during the year of award. The award made by Australian Music Prize Ltd, a sole-purpose entity sponsored by a variety of music industry figures and record companies. The AMP was established in 2005.

Australian Music Prize
2008 AMP logo
Awarded for	Best Australian album
Country	Australia
First awarded	2005
Website	www.australianmusicprize.com.au

Unlike the more mainstream ARIA music awards, The AMP aims to encourage Australian music of excellence – the prize's stated aim is to "financially reward and increase exposure for an Australian artist (or group of artists) who have produced and commercially released what specially appointed judges vote is the best contemporary music album in any one calendar year". In this sense, the AMP is broadly comparable to the UK's Mercury Music Prize.

2008's prize director Tracey Grimson says having a number one album counts for very little in the judging.

The thing about the Australian Music Prize is that it's genuinely about rewarding creative excellence. The albums are all listened to and they're all judged on creative merit. It doesn't matter if someone has been number one or never heard of before, they have an equal chance of making it through.

— Tracey Grimson, 20 March 2009[1]

The prize typically launches at the start of October each year and accepts entries (must be new Australian artist albums commercially released in that year) in October and November. A short list is announced the following February and then a winner at an event in Sydney in March.

Past winners and short list nominees

Year	Winner	Shortlisted nominees & albums	Ref(s)
2005	The Drones - Wait Long by the River and the Bodies of Your Enemies Will Float By	Ben Lee – Awake Is the New Sleep The Devastations – Coal The Go-Betweens – Oceans Apart The Mess Hall – Notes From A Ceiling Tex, Don and Charlie – All is Forgiven TZU – Smiling at Strangers Wolfmother – Wolfmother	[2]
2006	Augie March - Moo, You Bloody Choir	Bob Evans – Suburban Songbook Gotye – Like Drawing Blood Howling Bells – Howling Bells Jackie Marshall – Fight n'Flight Lisa Gerrard – The Silver Tree Sarah Blasko – What The Sea Wants, The Sea Will Have The Drones – Gala Mill The Grates – Gravity Won't Get You High	[3][4]
2007	The Mess Hall - Devils Elbow	Architecture in Helsinki – Places Like This bluejuice – Problems Dardanelles – Mirror Mirror The Devastations – Yes U Lisa Miller – Morning in the Bowl of Night Midnight Juggernauts – Dystopia New Buffalo – Somewhere, Anywhere Perry Keyes – Last Ghost Train Home Urthboy – The Signal	[5][6]
2008	Eddy Current Suppression Ring - Primary Colours	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 Ross McLennan – For the New World	[1]
2009	Lisa Mitchell - Wonder	Bertie Blackman – Secrets and Lies Black Cab – Call Signs Kid Sam – Kid Sam Lucie Thorne – Black Across the Field Oh Mercy – Privileged Woes Sarah Blasko – As Day Follows Night The Mess Hall – For The Birds Urthboy – Spitshine
2010	Cloud Control - Bliss Release	The Holidays – Post Paradise Dan Kelly – Dan Kelly's Dream Eddy Current Suppression Ring – Rush To Relax Gareth Liddiard – Strange Tourist Pikelet – Stem Richard in Your Mind – My Volcano Sally Seltmann – Heart That's Pounding Tame Impala – Innerspeaker
2011	The Jezabels - Prisoner	Abbe May – Design Desire Adalita – Adalita Boy & Bear – Moonfire Gotye – Making Mirrors Gurrumul – Rrakala Jack Ladder & The Dreamlanders – Hurtsville Kimbra – Vows The Middle East – I Want That You Are Always Happy	[7]
2012	Hermitude - HyperParadise	Flume – Flume Tame Impala – Lonerism The Presets – Pacifica Grand Salvo – Slay Me in My Sleep Jess Ribero & the Bone Collectors – My Little River Liz Stringer – Warm in the Darkness Daily Meds – Happy Daze Urthboy – Smokey's Haunt
2013	Big Scary - Not Art	Jen Cloher – In Blood Memory Dialectrix – The Cold Light of Day Kirin J. Callinan – Embracism Beaches – She Beats Horrorshow – King Amongst Many Jagwar Ma – Howlin' Cloud Control – Dream Cave Jimblah – Phoenix
2014	REMI - Raw X Infinity	#1 Dads – About Face Blank Realm – Grassed Inn C. W. Stoneking – Gon' Boogaloo Caitlin Park – The Sleeper Chet Faker – Built on Glass Laura Jean – Laura Jean The Peep Tempel – Tales Total Control – Typical System
2015	Courtney Barnett - Sometimes I Sit and Think, and Sometimes I Just Sit	Dan Kelly – Leisure Dick Diver – Melbourne, Florida Gold Class – It's Jess Ribeiro – Kill It Yourself Methyl Ethel – Oh Inhuman Spectacle My Disco – Severe Royal Headache – High Sarah Blasko – Eternal Return Tame Impala – Currents	[8]
2016	A.B. Original - Reclaim Australia	The Avalanches – Wildflower Big Scary – Animal Camp Cope – Camp Cope D.D Dumbo – Utopia Defeated King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard – Nonagon Infinity Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds – Skeleton Tree Olympia – Self Talk The Peep Tempel – Joy	[9]
2017	Sampa the Great - Birds and the BEE9	Beaches – Second of Spring Darcy Baylis – Intimacy & Isolation HTMLflowers – Chrome Halo Jen Cloher – Jen Cloher Jordan Rakei – Wallflower Liars – TFCF Paul Kelly – Life Is Fine The Vampires – The Vampires Meet Lionel Loueke	[10] [11]
2018	Gurrumul - Djarimirri	Abbe May – Fruit Courtney Barnett – Tell Me How You Really Feel Dead Can Dance – Dionysus Grand Salvo – Sea Glass Laura Jean – Devotion The Presets – Hi Viz Rolling Blackouts Coastal Fever – Hope Downs Sam Anning – Across A Field As Vast As One	[12] [13]
2019	Sampa the Great - The Return	Ainslie Wills – All You Have Is All You Need Amyl and the Sniffers – Amyl and the Sniffers Dispossessed – Warpath Never Ended Julia Jacklin – Crushing Methyl Ethel – Triage Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds – Ghosteen Sleep D – Rebel Force Thelma Plum – Better in Blak	[14][15]

See also

• Choice Music Prize (Ireland)
• Mercury Prize (United Kingdom)
• Nordic Music Prize (Nordic countries)
• Polaris Music Prize (Canada)
• Prix Constantin (France)
• Shortlist Music Prize (United States)

References

1. "Eddy Current Supresion Ring takes out 30K music prize". ABC News. 20 March 2009. Retrieved 20 March 2009.
2. "The Drones Take Out The Inaugural AMP (Australian Music Prize)". FasterLouder.com.au. 9 March 2006. Archived from the original on 7 September 2008. Retrieved 9 July 2009.
3. "Augie March take out AMP award". AdelaideNow. The Advertiser. 7 March 2007. Retrieved 9 July 2009.
4. "PCCA congratulates Augie March" (PDF). Phonographic Performance Company of Australia. 8 March 2007. Archived from the original (PDF) on 19 July 2008. Retrieved 9 July 2009.
5. "The Mess Hall win the Australian Music Prize". TheWest.com.au. The West Australian. 13 March 2008. Archived from the original on 3 March 2009. Retrieved 9 July 2009.
6. "The Mess Hall elbow way to music prize". News.com.au. 13 March 2008. Retrieved 9 July 2009.
7. "The Jezabels take out Australian Music Prize". ABC News Online. 9 March 2012. Retrieved 20 April 2012.
8. "Courtney Barnett Has Taken Out The Australian Music Prize For 2015 – Music Feeds". 9 March 2016. Retrieved 19 October 2016.
9. http://www.smh.com.au/entertainment/music/ab-original-win-the-australian-music-prize-with-a-timely-angry-protest-album-20170309-guuolt.html Sydney Morning Herald, 9 March 2017
10. http://themusic.com.au/news/all/2018/03/09/sampa-the-great-scores-$30,000-aus-music-prize/
11. "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 11 March 2018. Retrieved 11 March 2018.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
12. "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 7 April 2019. Retrieved 7 April 2019.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
13. https://www.smh.com.au/entertainment/music/gurrumul-wins-australian-music-prize-20190307-p512hm.html
14. "15th Australian Music Prize". The Music Network. 6 February 2020. Retrieved 6 February 2020.
15. "AMP winner Sampa The Great creates history". Sydney Morning Herald. 6 March 2020. Retrieved 13 April 2020.

External links

• Official website