Thank you for your interest in becoming a Polaris Music Prize jury member.
Before you fill in the form below, you should know that being a Polaris juror requires your time and effort and energy. The jury recommends, discusses, then votes on the Long and Short List. It is volunteer work (for which we appreciate you applying) but work nonetheless. The minimum time commitment is about an hour a week. It can be more or less depending on the flow of discussions and how much listening there is to do. It starts when you start, and continues throughout the year. If you do not think you can devote the time, please reconsider applying.
If you are selected, you will be asked to contribute in the following mandatory ways:
- Listening to a wide variety of Canadian releases
- Reading and posting messages to fellow jurists in a private online forum that recommends and discusses records for consideration.
- Voting on a Long List ballot of 5 titles.
- Voting on a Short List ballot of 5 titles from the Long List.
You may also be selected for the 11 person Grand Jury that decides the winner.
- When inviting new jury members we consider:
- Experience.
- Diversity in taste.
- Local music knowledge.
- Regular contributions to the media of your engagement (if applicable).
- Geographic diversity.
- Ethnic diversity.
- Gender balance.
- Language diversity.
- We also consider how new additions to the jury affect the overall balance of the criteria listed above.
Should you be unsure if you are eligible to be a juror, we still recommend applying. We might be looking for someone just like you!
Any personal or financial interest in an artist / musician must be declared in advance as a conflict of interest. Some activities that we consider conflicts include (but are not limited to):
- Recording
- Producing
- Concert promoting
- Record promoting or record company work
- Publicizing
- Agency representation
- Close personal relations
- Where there is a conflict, these specific artists and their recordings cannot be proposed or discussed by you in the online forum or selected on your ballot, nor can any discussion related to that artist be relayed back to that artist.
The degree to which an applicant’s possible conflict of interest may or may not impact their ability to participate fully in the juror process and will be evaluated on a case-by-case basis.
Your application does not guarantee you’ll be accepted to be part of the jury.
