All nominated albums will be received by IMNZ no later than 23^rd January 2012.

The judging process will take place over two phases:

Phase One: All IMNZ members plus approx. 20 non-IMNZ music judges will rank their top 10 albums from the submitted nominations. The non-IMNZ member judges will include selected musicians, music journalists and music industry personnel. Listening and voting facilities will be available for all judges on-line. The nominations with the most votes will be chosen as the TMP finalists.

Phase Two: A ten person judging panel will be appointed by IMNZ. This group will be announced along with the TMP finalists. They will meet to decide the winner of the TMP.

Judges will assess the album in its entirety including the music, packaging and album artwork. Album sales, artist popularity or recognition, previous awards, live or international achievements are not factors that will be considered.

The Taite Music Prize winning album will be announced at an event in Auckland on the 20^th of April 2012.

All decisions of the judges are final. No correspondence will be entered into.