We are very excited to announce that nominations are now open for the Taite Music Prize 2012.

Named after the late Dylan Taite, one of the country's most highly respected music journalists, this will be the third year for the award. In a similar vein to several international awards, The Taite Music Prize's purpose is to recognise outstanding creativity for an entire collection of music contained on one album. The winner will receive a cash prize of $10,000, to be spent as they wish. The cash prize is kindly supplied by PPNZ Music Licensing.

In its inaugural year the Taite Music Prize was won by Lawrence Arabia for his album Chant Darling and Ladi 6 was awarded the prize for The Liberation Of… earlier this year. Acknowledging originality, creativity and musicianship regardless of sales figures or genre, The Taite Music Prize was established to champion the finest release by a New Zealand artist or group – both previous winners have excellent albums that fit these criteria well.

The nominated finalist albums will be selected by votes from all IMNZ members and a twenty person judging group - comprising musicians, record label representatives, music journalists and radio staff. There will then be a secondary group of ten music judges that will decide the final winner.

The judges will make their decision based entirely on the music on the album. Sales, genres, artist recognition or popularity are not contributing factors in their decision making process. The winner will then be announced at a presentation in Auckland on 20th April 2012.

Independent Music New Zealand (IMNZ), PPNZ Music Licensing and NZ On Air (NZOA) are the principal music industry supporters of the Taite Music Prize in conjunction with the Taite family. Other sponsors for the Taite Music Prize 2012 include the NZ Music Commission, The Australasian Performing Right Association (APRA), Native Tongue Music Publishing, Jagermeister, Amplifier.co.nz and Moa Beer.

Any New Zealand album released during 2011 is eligible for nomination for the Taite Music Prize 2012. For more detail on eligibility and nomination forms please visit http://www.indies.co.nz. Nominations close on 23rd of January 2012.

The nomination form is over here