When Seventh Street Media’s staff first discussed The Industry Observer Awards, it was decided that transparency of the judging process was key.

To keep in line with our goal, please find a brief outline of how this year’s judging process works.

The Shortlist

The first step of the judging process is to create a shortlist for each Awards category.

Shortlisting for each award will be decided by a jury comprised of Seventh Street Media’s CEO and Managing Editor, as well as representatives from ARIA, AIR, APRA AMCOS, and AAM.

Each representative will use each category’s criteria to judge remotely, ranking each nominee based on how well the nomination addresses the criteria.

All communication between the shortlist judges will be carried out with the knowledge of Seventh Street Media’s CEO and Managing Editor.

Assigning Judges

The TIO Awards were created to recognise the incredible industry figures in Australasia, so who better to decide on the winners than the people who make up the local music industry?

The judges are selected by their ability to judge the various categories. They must work in or with the category’s sector and can not be a judge if they themselves are nominated, or if they have a personal or professional alliance with one of the nominees.

The judges will be asked to declare if there is a conflict of interest and will be removed from the panel if so and reassigned to another category.

This is made easy by the fact we have a number of judges signed on, from differing backgrounds, genders and locations.

The Judging Process

Each Award category will have seven judges assigned, all of whom understand no bias or collusion is allowed. No two categories will have identical panels.

The panel of judges for each category will meet in person, in Sydney, to decide the winner. Similar to the shortlist judges before them, the Awards judges will use the criteria for each category to score each nominee on how best they meet that criteria.

To ensure no collaborative bias, when a judge is scoring a category, they have no idea what scores the other judges are giving.  However, if there is no clear overall winner at the end of the judging process, then the judges are brought back to discuss the top finalists and the clear winner.

Seventh Street Media has no involvement in the final judging process.

Established to recognise those that stand behind the artists and celebrate their genius, dedication and creativity, the TIO Awards is an all-new event taking place at the Sydney Cricket Ground on Monday, March 27, 2018. Tickets to the TIO Awards will be sold on a first-come, first-served basis. Attendance is open to the general public and industry alike.

Key dates:

Nominees announced February 12
2018 TIO Awards: March 27 at Sydney Cricket Ground

The TIO Awards presented by TicketWeb categories:

Manager of the Year
sponsored by AAM

Record Label A&R of the Year
sponsored by Doyles

Publisher A&R of the Year

Marketing Manager/Director of the Year

Publicist of the Year
sponsored by One Accounting

Booking Agent of the Year

Radio Host of the Year

Community Radio Host of the Year

The Industry Impact Award
sponsored by BMG

Executive of the Year
sponsored by KPMG

Industry Tweet of the Year

Guardian of the Year (Recognising mums, dads and guardians of musicians)

Festival of the Year

Boutique Festival of the Year
sponsored by Mountain Goat Beer

Music Lawyer of the Year
sponsored by Madison Marcus

Music Retailer of the Year

Music Digital Retailer

This article originally appeared on The Industry Observer, which is now part of The Music Network.