It’s going to be a long time between drinks for the (normally) annual Aotearoa Music Awards, with the event organisers Recorded Music NZ recently disclosing that the next public AMA celebration will take place in the first half of 2024 – this following last year’s November’s event celebrating the 2022 Tūī finalists and winners being a low key invitation-only affair.

With no awards event at all during 2023 the eligibility period for AMA 2024 will be covering 17 months, from August 1 2022 – December 31, 2023, with a launch planned for November this year. 

The decision comes a result of a review RMNZ undertook in 2022, after deciding to pause the annual awards show which had lost sponsorship support and become unaffordable in its traditional large-scale televised format.

Having reached out to artists and the wider music community via online survey feedback was provided by over 350 people, the majority of whom were artists or artist managers. The responses made it clear that the Aotearoa Music Awards are seen as aspirational for emerging artists and that being an award finalist, winning and having the opportunity to perform live bring tangible benefits for artists that can raise their profile.

However many people ‘acknowledged the tension between the in-room experience and the key role of the awards to serve as a platform for artists to reach fans & media and to drive engagement with music from Aotearoa.’

RMNZ also acknowledge feedback that they need to address, including concerns about the judging process, a lack of understanding or clarity about the criteria for judging each of the awards and questions about the make-up and diversity of the judging academies.

Moving the event to a new time of year has been one consequence and RMNZ will be assessing the judging process to make sure the way of voting and the weighting system is robust, based on best practice and communicated well to those involved. A process of looking into each of the current award categories including a review of the criteria, how they are communicated and whether they are still reflective of our modern industry has also been started.