Nominations for the 2019 NZ Music Awards are open.

T & C can be found here and you can sign up to nominate someone here.

Awards are open to NZ artists who have had recordings commercially released between August 1, 2018, and July 31, 2019. Nominations will close on August 2, 2019.

From this year, the Best Producer/Te Kaiwhakaputa Toa and Best Engineer/Te Kaipukaha Toa categories will move to include works that are ‘album equivalent’, defined as at least five single releases with a play time of 25 minutes or more. 

Producing and engineering work with international artists will be counted and singles can now be from different artists, building more of a profile for the nominees.

The Best Album Cover award has been renamed to Best Album Artwork/Te Toi Ataata Pukaemi Toa and will include all artwork included as part of an album’s packaging. 

The Tui presented at the 2019 NZ Music Awards will be:

• Album of The Year/Te Pukaemi o te Tau
• Single of the Year/Te Waiata Tōtahi o te Tau
• Best Group/Te Roopu Toa
• Best Solo Artist/Te Kaipuoro Takitahi Toa
• Breakthrough Artist of the Year/Te Kaituhura Puoro Toa o te Tau
• Best Rock Artist/Te Kaipuoro Rakapioi Toa
• Best Pop Artist/Te Kaipuoro Arotini Toa
• Best Alternative Artist/Te Kaipuoro Manohi Toa
• Best Soul/RnB Artist/Te Kaipuoro Awe Toa
• Best Hip Hop Artist/Te Kaipuoro Hipihope Toa
• Best Roots Artist/Te Kaipuoro Taketake Toa
• Best Electronic Artist/Te Kaipuoro Tāhiko Toa
• Best Māori Artist/Te Kaipuoro Māori Toa
• Best Worship Artist/Te Kaipuoro Kairangi Toa 
• Best Classical Artist/Te Kaipuoro Inamata Toa

The finalists will be announced in September.

The annual Artisan Awards will be held in November at Massey University’s School of Music and Creative Media Production in Wellington. The event shines the spotlight on the producers and engineers who craft and refine the artists’ work, the talented visual artists translating the musicians’ visions into album artwork and music videos, and the music teachers who inspire a generation. 

This year Recorded Music NZ will be presenting the Best Producer, Best Engineer, Best Album Artwork, Best Music Video/Te Puoro Ataata Toa and Music Teacher of the Year Tui/Kaiārahi Puoro o te Tau at the Artisan Awards. For the first time the Manager of the Year award will also be presented by the Music Managers Forum at this year’s event.