L.A.B. won Te Pukaemi o te Tau Album of the Year, and three other awards at the Aotearoa Music Awards 2022 - scooping the same four awards they won in 2021. Photo: Supplied / James Ensing-Trussell
Sarah Owen of Recorded Music NZ talks to Music 101 about the changes to the Aotearoa Music Awards, and why there won't be a 2023 ceremony.
An article on AudioCulture about New Zealand's music awards puts it this way: "Music awards are by their very nature, high profile affairs that everyone has an opinion on: too glitzy, not glitzy enough, too diverse, not enough diversity, far too many categories, there should be more categories ... and on it goes."
A walk through the history of the New Zealand Music Awards certainly reflects the changing tastes and budgets of the local record industry across the decades.
And there are more changes on the way to the now-called Aotearoa Music Awards.
Sarah Owen - the head or kaiwhakahaere of Recorded Music NZ Ngā Tohu Puoro o Aotearoa - talked to Charlotte Ryan about what is happening and what's behind the changes.
"The music awards has always kind of been a little bit of a shifting sands I guess, moving with the times," she said.
"But post-pandemic I think that everyone has been looking at what they do, the reasons behind why they do it and if it's still relevant, and the awards was one of those things that we really wanted to look at.
"We've been assuming what the music community wants and needs out of their awards show, but it seemed to be a great time to talk to them about it and to make sure that we really are serving them in the best way we can - so that's what we did."
Finalists for the 2021 Aotearoa Music Awards Photo: Supplied
So a researcher went about talking with hundreds of different people from the music community, and strong themes came out of the feedback, Owen said.
The message was overwhelming that the awards are widely valued and seen as aspirational for emerging artists, and that they produce tangible promotional opportunities for artists.
"It also is a night that's really special because it brings the community together, and we get together and we acknowledge and recognise all the work that's been done over the past 12 months, so in that space they're really valued," Owen said.
Artists found that wins or performances at the ceremony were seen as "high value" achievements when included in their CV, particularly for those heading overseas, she said.
The research showed the music community did also have some concerns or things they wanted to see changed or clarified, particularly about the practicalities of holding a broadcastable ceremony, the judging process, the categories and the importance of diversity in the judging panels.
One of the big changes arising from the process would be that the ceremony itself was being shifted to earlier in the year - April or May - instead of about November as it had been in recent years.
And the plan was not to hold a 2023 ceremony.
That "allows us some time to make sure that we're covering off all the things that were brought up in the review that we need to, those things do take a little bit of time, such as the judging process and making sure that the categories are as they should be," Owen said.
And "May is May Music Month, it's a very special time for our community to be celebrating all that we do."
But the ceremony would definitely back.
"It was never the plan to stop [holding the ceremony], but we just wanted to be sure that we were doing it right ... and were giving us enough time to do that."
Owen said Recorded Music NZ would still like to hear feedback on the awards by email at feedback@recordedmusic.co.nz.
Aotearoa Music Awards 2021 Photo: Recorded Music NZ
