SOUNDMERCH ANNOUNCES PARTNERSHIP WITH THE AUSTRALIAN MUSIC PRIZE WITH $20,000 IN PRIZE MONEY GUARANTEED
Melbourne’s SoundMerch today proudly announces a partnership with The Australian Music Prize (The AMP) in 2020, stepping up as the naming rights sponsor. The partnership guarantees a cash prize of $20,000 for the winner.
Australia’s most prestigious music award announced its return in 2020 for its 16th prize, last month. With COVID-19 putting many people and businesses under immense financial pressure, The AMP, whose primary source of income had been sponsorship, announced a unique opportunity to purchase t-shirts with 70% of all profit from sales going directly to the artists through prize money and marketing of the albums.
Since then, SoundMerch has generously stepped up to give back to the Australian music industry by sponsoring the prize. With COVID-19 putting a pause in live music and the tour merch that comes with that, bands have been pushing their online music merch more than ever as one of their main sources of income. This saw online merch and vinyl sales triple for Australia’s SoundMerch who has been printing and producing merch for over 10 years.
“We’ve had a great year and would like to give something back to Australian artists given most of them haven’t had a great year. Doing this through The AMP also helps promote a healthy music scene which in turn helps SoundMerch” said Tim Everist, CEO of SoundMerch.
Emerging in 2005, the Australian Music Prize has provided a mouthpiece for the best albums in Australian contemporary music, judged by esteemed peers within the Australian music industry that focuses on creative merit over mainstream popularity. A sister prize to the UK's coveted Mercury Prize, the Australian Music Prize is Australia's most sought-after achievement within the music community, honouring the album as an art form.
With over 50 Australian albums nominated - so far - the 16th AMP will announce its final list of 2020 Nominated Albums in December. In 2019, this list was 107 albums long out of 440 eligible albums with numbers looking similar this year. As per previous prizes, the Shortlist will be announced in early-Feb 2021 and then a select panel of the judges will meet in March to decide on and announce, a winner.
“It's admirable of Tim to stand up to declare he’s making money from Aussie music and therefore he wants to give back and support the artists, I urge artists to work with companies like this. SoundMerch’s support means we can guarantee a cash prize of $20,000 and if our t-shirt sales continue, we may even be able to offer more funds for those artists making great albums” said Scott B. Murphy, the founder and prize director of The AMP.
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70% of profits will go directly to artists by way of prize money and marketing of their albums.
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2020 Australian Music Prize Nominations (So Far)
#1 Dads — Golden Repair
5 Seconds Of Summer — Calm
Alice Ivy — Don't Sleep
Andras — Joyful
Andrew Tuttle — Alexandra
Banoffee — Look At Us Now Dad
Big Yawn — No!
Boomalli — The Promise
Cable Ties — Far Enough
Caiti Baker — Mary Of The North
Clamm — Beseech Me
DMAs — The Glow
e4444e — Coldstream Road
Eddy Current Suppression Ring — All In Good Time
Fanny Lumsden — Fallow
Good Boy — It Takes A Lot Of Skill To Milk A Mare
Gordi — Our Two Skins
Gordon Koang — Unity
Gum — Out In The World
Jack Colwell — Swandream
Jess Cornelius — Distance
Karate Boogaloo — Carn The Boogers
Katie Dey — Mydata
L-Fresh The Lion — South West
Loser — Mindless Joy
Luke Howard — The Sand That Ate The Sea
Mark Seymour & The Undertow — Slow Dawn
Miiesha — Nyaaringu
Mild Minds — Mood
Nat Vazer — Is This Offensive And Loud?
Nick Griffith — 7AM
Party Dozen — Pray For Party Dozen
Primo! — Sogni
Rolling Blackouts Coastal Fever — Sideways To New Italy
Roza Terenzi — Modern Bliss
RVG — Feral
Sarah Mary Chadwick — Please Daddy
Shepparton Airplane — Sharks
Simona Castricum — Panic/Desire
Snowy Band — Audio Commentary
Sophie Hutchings — Scattered On The Wind
Stevan — Just Kids
Sweet Whirl — How Much Works
Tame Impala — The Slow Rush
The Chats — High Risk Behaviour
The Friends Of David McComb — Truckload Of Sky
The Necks — Three
Tracy Mc Neil & The Goodlife — You Be The Lightning
Traffik Island — Sweat Kollecta's Peanut Butter Traffik Jam
Vanessa Perica Orchestra — Love Is A Temporary Madness
Violent Soho — Everything Is A-OK
Ziggy Ramo — Black Thoughts
