JPF Home Page Forums General Messages Music Awards Discussion 2017 Music Awards FAQ and Genres Explained

Doug, John and Andy,

Congrats to all of you! To answer your questions/comments:

Doug: Who get's to vote:

Doug, we will use a combination of Music Industry Professionals, Musicians and Songwriter Peer (i.e. JPF Members that are not nominated in the categories they vote in meaning even nominees (and hopefully) will be judges in other categories which is a great part of the tradition, it also will give you some idea of the quality of nominees around other genres).

Doug: How do we Vote:

We now have the difficult task of contacting each and every nominee to get them send us digital files of their music. (Don't start yet, we're not ready). We will build a judging interface online so people can vote in as many genres as they want other than their own. Our only judging criteria, throughout this process stays the same "Does the music move you?" (this will be further explained in a separate email newsletter so be sure you're signed up to get it on our home page or by clicking the Membership button on this page near the top right. (Some people have dropped off the list, changed emails or perhaps your manager or label entered an artist). I am neither against nor for telling people to come vote (well, if they are artists or industry, definitely invited them so they can check it out) but we don't allow ballot stuffing. That's not fair nor honest. So we have safeguards against it including WE assign genres to judge based on genres you say you prefer (you get to pick 3 from the list), but we often pick similar genres rather than those exact ones, so fans would be disappointed if their only goal was to ballot stuff for you. Any votes deemed by us to be ballot stuffing won't count and if the problem is severe, we may eliminate the offending nominee based on other criteria we've developed over the years. So it's great to tell fans to vote, but not just for you. Make sense? Seem Fair? I hope so! We have everything from complete unknowns in their basement to Rock Hall of Fame members as well as major label, indie label and big draw award winning artists involved, this is not a popularity contest like the Grammys. This is about /Music that moves us most!

John: That's wonderful that you've been able to place your music. You won't be alone, but I am not surprised about you placing any of your music, it seems inevitable in your case. Congrats!

Andy, I am glad you're excited by it all, your song is really clever and SHOULD be used on a soundtrack by someone! Perhaps it will be discovered during judging by someone who wants it!

Andy: Do opportunities come from all this? Will it help me succeed? What does it mean?

The answer is, we don't know, nor do we care only in the sense that often in this competitive world music is only noticed if people can make money off of it. We rarely appreciate music for music's sake. We're different. We judge music on if it moves us or not, and we don't care, in this case, if commerce agrees. We spend much of the rest of our time helping musicians network, learn the business, get ahead commercially and among their fans, but for our awards, we simply enjoy and recognize music in the way we think it SHOULD be judged, does it move people. (Happy, Sad, Angry, Invigorating or any other word that means it touches you and evokes a reaction. Why make music? First, to please yourself (which people rarely tell you, in fact they say you should learn to please others. I disagree, no one (especially today) will ever care about your music more than you do. Please yourself. Be true to your core being. Music that comes ftrom there will move you. And that is music's most important life benefit to a creator. Next, you put it out in the best way you can to be fair to listeners (in other words, you may not have money, fame, resources or power, but do the best YOU can do through hard work and effort, because that's all you CAN do) and if you are fair to listeners AND you attract their attention and MOVE them, then that's the perfect result. Whether it is just yourself, your friends, your mom and dad or the entire world on the Grammy platform, you want to move people. Money, fame, power are all connected to commerce first. We're all about, do you move us, and if you move us the most this year, you may win your category. If you don't win, you've still won IF you pleased yourself and obviously by being nominated, you've already pleased a lot of others, very diverse others with all sort of views and backgrounds and opinions and demands. You've already won even if you don't move one more voter.

I hope this puts things into a new perspective for you all. Good luck and congrats to all of you!