Submissions open for Music Victoria Awards

The Music Victoria Awards will return in 2021 to celebrate the achievements of venues, artists and industry professionals across Melbourne and regional Victoria.

Submissions for this year's November awards are now open, with a number of changes being introduced to reflect the evolving state of the industry.

Most notably, Music Victoria will debut a new category to recognise the Best Pop Act at the awards.

In addition, organisers said industry-voted genre categories will be simplified to make them uniform. They will now be based on the act, rather than the album, to address the changing nature how music is released and consumed.

The 2021 Music Victoria Awards will be the first ceremony to occur under Music Victoria's new CEO Simone Schinkel, with awards founder and former CEO Patrick Donovan stepping down from his role with the industry body last year.

Heralding the return of the awards, Schinkel said that the changes in this year's awards would help to better reflect the diversity of the Victorian music industry.

“I’ve really tried to spend my early days in the role listening to the industry and I am delighted to introduce some changes in 2021, based on what I have been hearing," Schinkel said.

"As part of our commitment to continual improvement we have refined our Awards criteria, categories and judging processes which we believe will more accurately reflect and reward the diverse music community in Victoria.

"A Music Victoria Award nomination results in increased promotion, recognition and attention on your music, career, venue or festival – we encourage our members to get involved.”

Submissions for this year's Music Victoria Awards are open now and close at midnight Tuesday July 20. An active paid Music Victoria membership is required to nominate for the awards.

The awards shortlist will be published in September.

A full list of categories for this year's awards can be viewed via the Music Victoria website.